Shadows in the tree
by triiipod
Summary: The Konoha Crush crippled them, their alliance was hanging by a thread. the world at large was eyeing them like a piece of meat. they had one option. to raise their jinchuriki, not to be a weapon, but to be an icon, a symbol of hope in their darkest hour. He only needed to learn how to shine in their darkest place first, their ANBU.
1. Chapter 1

hello, welcome to my first fan-fic.

it's an ANBU naruto story that I have been brewing in my head and on my computer for a while.

I apologize for grammar errors, Polish is my first language, not English. I speak and type English fluently but I do sometimes struggle.

I do not own Naruto.

please enjoy!

* * *

When Naruto woke he knew two things, one he wasn't in the hospital that he had gone to sleep in, and second was that people were yelling. There were other things that he could notice, the ceiling was painted an ugly green, he wasn't wearing the same clothes he went to bed in, there were other people in the room with him, the bed was super uncomfortable. But the first two were the main factors.

The shouting got louder, about what he wasn't even awake enough to comprehend. Then someone shoved him off the bed. He landed on someone, who shrugged him off as best they could while trying to get dressed. He plopped onto the floor and was immediately stepped on. He was on the ground for a second before someone lifted him by his hair.

He came face to face with a mask.

An ANBU mask.

The shouting voice was not coming from this person, but another ANBU in the room, behind this one.

"get dressed!" it was practically whispered to him from ANBU currently holding him but it did register in his mind that he should probably get dressed. The ANBU released his hair, and Naruto barely caught himself with his own feet he spun looking for anywhere to find clothes to get dressed. A pretty blond kunoichi dressed only in a black tee shirt and panties was his first sight. He paused to take a real good look despite the situation.

Then he was shoved roughly into a thin locker, he could see another one right next to it, it had a name he didn't recognize.

Kaori Yamanaka

Nice. The hand that held him against the locker grabbed his head and moved it up so he could see the name on the locker he was pressed against.

Naruto Uzumaki

Not nice, he was released but could feel the ANBU's irritation behind him, Naruto opened the locker. A white ANBU mask greeted him, the only marking on it where _r-201_ underneath it laid black pants, boots, and armor, kunai, shuriken, and a knife.

Naruto was pleased to notice that he wasn't the last person to be done getting ready was he slow yes, but he wasn't the last. Now being fully awake and having a mask to cover up his eye movements he got a good look around the room. It was a large compartment style barracks and from what he could see there were a hundred other people with the same mask as himself, their numbers all counting up. The four ANBU patrolling the room were checking everyone, securing their armor straps. Adjusting their swords or knives. He noticed that he received the least amount of adjustment. A good thing or a bad thing he had yet to find out. A fifth ANBU member in a cat mask stood in the center off the room.

"you all have been selected for ANBU." The man paused "despite this, a majority of you are not going to pass this training, some of you may not even survive!" Naruto got the feeling he would be one of the ones to pass no matter what.

"you are the second platoon out of four, as such you are called Second platoon, your leadership is as follows. Recruit 200," _oh shit_ a tall thin man stepped forward, "Gin Nakayama, will be your platoon's captain! Recruit 201." _oh fuck_ Naruto took a shaky step forward. years of walking around the village gave him a sixth sense as to when people were looking at him, and he could feel everyone looking at him.

"Naruto Uzumaki!" that sixth sense flared as a majority of the room immediately disliked him. He could tell Kaori, r-222 and r-276 hadn't reacted super negatively, he then noticed that they were also probably the youngest in the room beside his thirteen-year-old self. "will be your platoon's first lieutenant. Recruit 202." A short kunoichi stepped out. "Asami Kurama will be your platoon's second lieutenant. Anyone else doesn't matter. Now your first training exercise will begin in an hour. Outside there is a flag, it's your flag, the three other platoons have their own flag. You are to retrieve one of their flags while holding onto your own. The platoon that lets their flag get captured first will be disbanded and only fifteen people will be reshuffled into the program, you have an hour to prepare in here." The five ANBU disappeared.

Naruto didn't fail to notice that Gin had only called Asami over to him to prepare, he also noticed that almost everyone in his immediate vicinity had practically run to get away from him. He caught Kaori, r-282.

"hey uhh-"

"look kid." She interrupted him "you seem okay, but I didn't miss the reaction everyone had about you." His shoulders slumped "I don't know why, I don't want to know why, but I also don't wanna get caught up in whatever it is. So just keep your distance, okay?" she didn't let him responded before spinning on her heal and stomping off to the crowd that had gathered around their leader.

"ouch rejected!" r-276 and r-277 where behind him, "im Morio this is Shoto" 276, Morio the taller redheaded one, gestured to 277, Shoto the shorter brunette. "we uhhhh decided to throw our towel in with you." Now Naruto was surprised. "I saw your fight with that Neji kid, at the chunin exams! your strategies were solid, chunin like us would have been hard pressed to beat him like you did!" Naruto didn't by it but if he had some friends during this whole thing, whatever it was, it would probably help. He turned his face to Shoto, someone who had definitely reacted badly to his name being announced.

"I had to repair the valley of the end after your fight!"

"Oh thank god, I thought you didn't like me cus-" he trailed off, he couldn't see their faces but he knew they were confused. "uhhhh forget about it, anyway I don't think I'll be invited to the powwow any time soon so if-."

"actually Uzumaki-sempai." Naruto blinked in surprise "I had an idea, but I know Gin personally, he's a bit of a stickler for the rules, and I thought you might be the better person to come to for this." Shoto spoke up, "what if we didn't wait?" Naruto grinned behind his mask.

"continue."

"im an earth specialist and I just picked up a technique that lets me travel through rock, I can drag a few people with me, and I thought a small team might work to get the flag early."

"and." Morio interrupted drawing out the word " I just got this done last week!" he showed off his forearm proudly, a storage seal was tattooed onto it. " we put the flag inside and come back when its time to start we unseal it and call it good." Naruto thought for a moment.

"Alright I like the plan but what if someone else from another platoon has the same idea?"

"you are the first lieutenant just get some people to help, but I can only take five maybe six."

"Riiiight. Ill uh go see if anyone else wants to try." The two nodded "I'll be right back.

Kaori was standing in the back of the crowd tapping her foot impatiently against the tile floor. He tapped her shoulder.

"you again didn't I tell you to beat it?" Naruto saw the glances from the others around them.

"Look uh, I've got an Idea, actually Shoto's got an idea but we need your help."

She glanced up at Gin who was going over what areas or training grounds they could be in, not even coming up with a battle plan.

"alright shoot I'll listen."

"we gotta get one more person then I'll tell you." She shrugged

"its better than Win." They walked off towards where r-222 was standing.

"does everyone know? him Shoto and Morio said something too" her mask stared blankly back at him.

"he's part of the BPB." Naruto waited for more

"that is?"

"the border patrol battalion. how do you not know what that is?"

"uhhhh."

"anyway, he's been a chunin there for a while, he's trying to join the ANBU for years."

"okay that makes a little sense, I guess?"

r-222 was leaning against a bunk bed casually when they arrived near him, his dark hair casting a weird shadow over his mask.

"ah Uzumaki, it's nice to meet you." the sarcasm hit Naruto like a brick.

"Uhm, you know my name but-"

"don't worry about it gotta practice that whole secrecy thing right, what it is you came to see me for?"

"well, Shoto had this idea that we go steal a flag early, and I kinda like it. But we need some people to come with us as a just in case."

"so, you came to a stealth and infiltration specialist to request back up for what could be a heavy combat operation?"

"Well, I uh didn't know-"

"I'll do it. It's more entertaining than sitting here for an hour listening to Gin talk."

"does everybody know him?"

Naruto did not like being in the ground. He couldn't see, feel, hear, or breath. The only noticeable thing he could 'feel' was his hand curled in someone else's, it felt like an eternity before he was spat out of a wall of rock. He landed on top of something, it felt nice. Then Kaori grunted and shoved him off of her on to the cold dirt.

"never again!" 222's voice rang out "we are never doing that again!" Naruto rolled to his left as Kaori moved her mask off a bit and hurled onto the ground.

"Hey, guys Shoto's passed out!" Naruto groaned and sat up he felt stiff and sore all over. They were never doing that again. they were on a mountain, high up on a mountain, the village was visible from where he sat, but only barely. The sun was high in the sky and did nothing to protect him from the cold that was setting in, which was a new experience for him. A hand cast a shadow over his face, 222 helped him up.

"so, what's next?" Naruto dusted himself off, before helping Kaori up.

"we gotta find a flag but first lets help Shoto."

"that's it?" he turned to Kaori.

"you got any better ideas?" she huffed just like Ino.

Morio was up and about, trying to wake Shoto up.

"guys I don't know what's wrong, he's never done this before!"

"here let me." 222 knelt down next to Shoto and his hand lit up green. "chakra exhaustion."

"what how? This has never happened before!"

"ya but one of us probably had chakra reserves too large for him to handle pulling through." _Oh shit._

Kaori perked up "but I don't sense anything more than a chunin from you guys."

"the armor masks chakra. Its supposed to help us not be sensed."

"then who has that much? Because Shoto's reserves are larger than Kakashi Hatake's!"

"I do." They turned to the thirteen-year-old.

"you? But you're like twelve!"

"I'm thirteen, but ya, I've got four times the reserves of Kakashi-sensei."

"what!"

"that's not possible."

"interesting, but ultimately pointless now, we need to do something about him."

Naruto looked around, the trees nearby where coniferous. And sparse. The rock wall behind them was just that a sheer cliff of stone that went up one hundred feet. "we need to store him."

"we can't just leave him!"

"and we can't take him into a combat zone!" Kaori rebuked Morio.

"Put him under the tree, I'll feed him a chakra pill that should get him going in like an hour just in time to join the main group."

Naruto turned to Morio, " look if you want to stay and protect him I'll let you but we're gonna need some help." Morio looked back down, with the mask on it was impossible to tell what his face looked like but Naruto could feel his confliction.

"I'll…I'll help let's get him stored." They did just that, carving out a few branches on the bottom of the tree, and force feeding him a chakra pill, once he was hidden.

"k-282, do you sense anything?" he could tell she was confused. "its probably smart if we don't use our names if you all know Gin then who knows you?" they nodded.

"makes sense."

"understandable

"didn't know you had it in you."

He ignored that last bit. Kaori brought her hands together and was still for a minute.

"there's something in that direction." She pointed to their left, _down the mountain_ "but I can't really tell what it is. There're also people moving around but they're all sporadic I can't really pick up a single direction."

"those are probably regular ANBU or other recruits looking for a flag. What's the plan 201?"

After a moment of contemplation that Naruto didn't know he could pull off he spoke. "let's go see what that thing is down there, then come back up if its nothing."

Luckily, they were correct to move down the mountain, unluckily so were the other teams that had left early, Kaori had counted twelve others that were now surrounding the flag.

"so this starts as four verses twelve then develops into a four v four v four." 222 said while trying to spot the other contenders from their vantage point on a small rock.

"so what do we do?" Naruto looked at the flag in the center of a circle of rocks.

"we don't know if they know we're here." He said, "but we also don't know if they don't know we're here."

"they also know the same for us." Kaori made a noise.

"speak plain!"

"right we do nothing, and report what we do know to Gin."

"I'd rather not." This time Morio spoke up.

"ya same."

Naruto turned to face Kaori now laying on his back. "your friends with Ino right?"

"Is now really the time, but yes she's my cousin."

"does that mean you gossip as much as she does?" she huffed.

"we do not gossip we Yamanaka run the counterintelligence program for the village!"

"right so you would know wants to be ANBU then?" now she seemed to understand

"ya, but I only know a few by name." Naruto nodded

"do you know their type. Like what would the general group of them be like?" she thought.

"skinny, fast, somewhat intelligent, and adaptable. That's what they usually are."

"any powerhouses?" she shook her head.

"only like one or two but I don't recognize their chakra here."

"I've got an idea" he brought his hands up to a cross.

To Kaori, Morio, and 222 the world exploded into a cloud of chakra smoke, Kaori got a headache from the amount of chakra she sensed come out of Naruto. To the other recruits, they thought someone had summoned a class-A summon. Until they were swarmed with clones. The sheer number of them forced an immediate retreat.

"holy fuck!" they darted through the veritable sea of clones with ease, they didn't have to worry about any stray shuriken or kunai as a clone would jump and take the hit. "holy fuck, this is insane!" Kaori was stumbling down the path of clones, the amount of chakra in the air making her head spin.

"how are…..what?" Morio was in the same boat as Kaori. An explosion went off killing a group of clones only for more to rush forward and fill the spot. Ahead of them, the real Naruto ran unhindered, when he should have died from chakra exhaustion.

They reached the flag without an issue, as still more clones charged forward into battle. "276 seal the flag we'll cover you." By covering him Naruto meant they stood around watching the clones get demolished by the ANBU recruits.

"now that I look, they're not doing much."

"with this many, they're practically mindless, their only command is to rush the enemy. If I made probably one hundred less, I could have had them actually attack or think somewhat." Kaori reached out and grabbed one running by, it slid its feet along the dirt as it tried to run towards the other recruits. She let go and it took off.

"that's awesome." The flag went up in smoke.

"we're good to go." Morio was breathing heavy. "but that-"

The horn was loud, it rattled their bones, Morio fell to his knees. It hadn't dissipated before a new noise began, something behind them was grinding, then clicked. The ground behind them fell. And ninety-six ANBU recruits rushed out into the sea of clones.

"fucking run!" 222 and Kaori were already running, Morio was struggling to get up, Naruto grabbed him and started to drag the young man.

"im sorry" he panted out "the flag was big!"

"just shut up and conserve your energy."

Three recruits leaped out of the battling crowd and rushed them. They stopped when they hit the first shadow. Naruto dragged Morio past a rock to see 222 holding a hand seal.

"glad that worked" he grunted as he caught another one "got an idea on how to get out of here?"

"just one!" Naruto moved his hand to the side and bit his thumb, bringing his hand together he flew through hand seals and slapped his hand on the ground. The puff of smoke was tiny. _Fuck._

"yo!" the small toad greeted them with a wave.

"that's your big plan! Summon a fucking baby frog." Kaori yelled at him as she met the first recruit to pass 222's shadows in taijutsu.

"Ummm im actually a toad, so please check your facts."

"Gamakichi now's not the time I needed to summon anyone else, is anyone available?"

"im hurt Naruto truly and honestly hurt!" a kunai embedded its self in between them, "I thought you liked me more than this" Naruto was gonna cry "but no, no one is available. We were actually gonna see if you wanted to stop by and celebrate the bug festival with us!"

"nope sorry a little busy at the moment, I'll take a rain check." Naruto summoned more clones this time with the ability to attack, they swarmed the caught recruits like locusts and started fighting.

"that's too bad it would have been-"

"we need to fucking move!" Naruto grabbed Gamakichi and 222 grabbed Morio. Kaori vaulted off of her rock to land next to them as they began to sprint away, A few more recruits chasing after them. Their hidey-hole exploded a moment later.

"so, Naruto you sure you can't-"

"just go home I'll call you later!"

"rude!" with that the summon disappeared into smoke.

The continued to run, kunai and shuriken rained down on them. The sound of battle was beginning to spread as the four platoons spread out to capture the flags. Naruto followed Kaori as she ducked behind a rock, ready to ambush a few recruits still chasing them. The rock was big and held up by a few small ones.

"this'll do" he summoned a clone and channeled chakra into his hand. "put exploding tags on the rock!" Kaori began slapping them on the sides. The Rasengan screeched against the rock for but a second before sending it tumbling down the slope. Its departure was sudden enough for him to almost fall with it. Kaori grabbed his collar and dragged him down with her.

"KAI" the world erupted in flames and dirt. The class-2 explosives cracked the ground beneath them and nearly sent them flying. It took Naruto a minute to recover, the ringing in his ears dissipating as what was definitely Kyuubi chakra healed them.

"I'm beginning to like this position." Kaori shoved him off and back on to the dirt. Naruto looked at where their chasers should have been.

Inches from where he lay, a new cliff had been formed, the rumble of the ongoing avalanche shook the earth and threatened to send him and Kaori off the new edge. He scrambled up pulling Kaori with him, she stumbled, her equilibrium thrown off by the explosion. It didn't take long for them to reach their own flag, surrounded by other platoon members. 222, and Morio were arguing with their platoon commander.

"You disobeyed a direct order from our instructor! You could have our whole platoon fail!"

"every platoon sent people out. We weren't the only ones we just managed to snag a flag first." Gin noticed himself and Kaori approach.

"you!" Naruto knew what was next "you risked everything we could have so that you could get the glory!"

"now wait a minute!" Kaori stepped in "we did this because we thought it would help!" their further argument was interrupted by the arrival of their cat masked ANBU.

"Congrats, you've captured a flag" the man sounded very bored "the exercise will continue until another flag is captured. However, you have secured your place in the training regiment." If it weren't for the mask on Naruto's face he would be sticking his tongue out at Gin.

* * *

It had been a week of hell for Naruto, and subsequently, everyone who had sided with him during their first exercise. While some were grateful they had managed to get the flag many had been swayed by their platoon commander to think that it had been a bad idea.

Throughout the week, and the exercises that had followed. Any idea they put forth was shot down, their armor and masks messed with, and the gear stolen. Kaori had called everyone a petty bitch and that chunin and jonin shouldn't act this way. Naruto had expected it once his name had been called out.

On Sunday they found out they had the day off and were allowed to head back to the village to handle any administrative duties or issues that needed to get done. 222, or Nara as they had been calling him had disappeared the moment they were released. Shoto and Morio had said they didn't need to go down to the village. Kaori decided she needed me time and departed shortly after being dismissed. Naruto had been summoned by their lead instructor to an office in the back of their barracks. When he arrived, Gin was already standing at perfect attention in front of Cat. To piss him off Naruto slouched.

"I want to congratulate you all on your excellent tactics and leadership during this first week of training. Your use of a specialized squad and its unorthodox tactics have led to recon adopting some of its battle strategies." Naruto could feel Gin being pleased with himself, but the man couldn't hide his annoyance at naruto's own success.

"because of this success, your platoon is being given some extra liberties." The ANBU pulled two manila folders out and tossed them to them. "ANBU has supply drops throughout the village, you are being granted access to one of them for your platoon. Gin you are dismissed, Uzumaki you stay."

Cat waited for Gin to depart, Naruto waited and waited.

"it seems like we'll need to work on your perception too!"

"ero-sennin!" he spun and ran towards the giant man "ero-sennin you're here."

"haha, brat of course im here!" Jiryia returned the hug Naruto gave him.

"ero-sennin you've got to get me out of here, its crazy I just woke up and there was yelling, then I saw Kaori's ass, we fought other recruits, and-"

"Relax, relax. I get it it's been a tough week."

"your gonna take me out of here….right…..ero-sennin?" the week of reading only body language gave Naruto an edge, and he could see Jiryia's confliction. "you're not here to take me, are you? Why?" Jiryia sighed.

"there's a lot going on….a lot, Konoha is in a bad spot, and we can't afford to take liberties that we normally would have. Tsunade and I tried to fight it but like I said there is a lot going on." Jiryaia sighed and sat down at the desk. Naruto just noticed that Cat had disappeared. "I was gonna take you out of the village for training, but." The older man gestured to the room. "that idea got canned."

"what is a lot ero-sennin? it got me stuck in here I want to know!" Jiraiya sighed again.

"Iwa and Kumo are testing our borders. we've taken too many hits in the past few years for us to just shrug off, I can count our A-ranked shinobi on one hand, our S-ranked use even fewer fingers. our alliance with Suna hangs by a thread, basically, we're fucked! the council hatched a plan to get you into top fighting shape. tsunade got overruled with a no-confidence vote for your handling, too emotional invested they said, and she's too new a Hokage to just refuse the council, sarutobi-sensei could have, he has been for years but now with the situation, we're in they got it to pass."

"so that's it then I just become the village weapon!"

"that's not what they want. With your sunny disposition, they got a better idea, I actually approve of it somewhat. they want to make you into an icon, a force for the village to look up to, someone we know we can count on to be our pillar, the trunk of the tree. it'll help with becoming Hokage later on too, but enough with this depressing stuff, its time to train."

Naruto was confused. "but it's my day off?"

Jiraiya's smile sent shivers down Naruto's spine.

* * *

thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed the first chapter. again I apologize for any grammar issues.

leave a review, hate, criticism, or compliment.


	2. Chapter 2

hello, welcome to my first fan-fic.

it's an ANBU Naruto story that I have been brewing in my head and on my computer for a while.

I apologize for grammar errors, Polish is my first language, not English. I speak and type English fluently but I do sometimes struggle.

 _:radio chatter:_

 _word - word_ = break in radio chatter

I do not own Naruto.

please enjoy!

* * *

the border near storm country was, amongst fire country citizens, considered the worst place in the world. storm country was at a higher elevation than the surrounding area, the water ran off in all directions, the border area was, unfortunately, a massive valley carved out by the nine tails centuries ago. The runoff water had collected over time and formed one of the largest swamps on the continent, and after a month of training, the fifty-eight remaining recruits of second platoon found themselves spending an extended period of time in the swamp.

Fire country was known for its year-round moderate temperatures, and while dry in most parts the massive swamp was in the middle of its November rain season. Naruto was grateful for the short canvas cloaks they had received a month ago from the supply depot. He knew third and fourth platoon didn't have them, and he couldn't begin to imagine what it would be like to stand out in the current storm without a cloak.

The outcast club, as Morio had named them was currently participating in a training siege. With second platoon possessing the most remaining recruits, third and fourth had been tasked with holding a position somewhere within the swamp for two weeks, it was day four. His small band of friends had left almost immediately upon arrival to scout and get away from the majority of the platoon, leaving Gin to prattle on about battle strategies and operations similar to this one he'd participated in.

"four rounds are done on the spot, like clockwork." Kaori said from her position laying on a gnarled tree overlooking the 'enemy fortress' Naruto enjoyed the view of her cloak riding up before laying down next to her. She passed him the binoculars and took a note on a waterproof notebook.

The fortress was a hastily erected square wall. With less hastily erected traps surrounding the area, inside the fortress, he could see well-dug foxholes and a new mud hut. the darkness of the night blocked his view of the guards.

"they don't even bother changing the watch bill, it has been the same guys for the past three days!" she complained.

"I thought I was supposed to be the loud complainer?"

"shut up, im just bored sitting in this fucking rain!" a flash of lightning stopped them as Kaori hastily scribbled out a drawing of the area from what little it had shown.

 _:recon this is lead report:_ the radio on his mask crackled, an unfortunate side effect of their instructors thinking that they had planned their separation, was the fact that they needed to keep appearances in that it was a team decision, which if Naruto thought about It, it was. So for the sake of looking like a team, they kept in contact.

 _:lead this is recon – we maintain eyes on the enemy fortress – only new pertinent information is a newly formed building in the center of the compound – we believe it's a rest area for them to dry off:_

 _:understood – I want that map soon – keep your eyes on target:_

The radio crackled as again as the transmission cut out. Kaori was looking at him. "look at you acting all grown up!" she reached around and ruffled his hair "pretty soon people might think you're an actual shinobi!" he growled as he threw her hand off his head. She laughed and turned her body to face his.

"what?"

"nothing we've got time before we check in with 222, 276, and 277. We also got time before their next patrol."

"then why are you staring at me?"

"entertain me." Naruto rolled his eyes.

"with what?"

"I don't know, Ino said your good at pranks, right? Tell me about those." He turned his body to face hers.

"I painted the Hokage monument last year!" she snorted.

"that was you! Ha, I heard it was awesome to see."

"you didn't see it?"

"Unfortunately, no, I was out on a mission at the time."

"it was pretty good, oh I got the old man with my sexy jutsu to steal the scroll of seals."

"now that I was there for, though I didn't know how you managed to get the scroll from him, now it makes sense!"

"I kinda wanna prank th-" they both snapped to looking out at the early patrol that left the base. "do you recognize them?"

"no their not one of the regular guards, what direction are they going?" Naruto blushed. "you don't know do you?" he shook his head, she sighed.

 _:222 this is 282 we've got early movement headed out their main entrance – seven targets moving near your position:_

 _:copy that – 276 this is 222 move southeast to maintain eyes on targets:_

 _:understood:_

 _:282 you guys come back our way in case something else happens:_

 _:moving:_

They stood, flexing the stiffness out of their bodies, before jumping down to the ground and taking off towards their rendezvous point Naruto keyed his channel back to Gin's

 _:lead this is recon:_ he had to wait a minute before he received a reply

 _:go for lead:_

 _:we've got enemy movement in our AO we're breaking recon to provide potential combat support to recon-2:_

 _:copy that recon – I'll send back up units to assist:_

 _:negative lead – they don't know we're here – bringing in support for heavy combat will destroy our intel - we can take them with the element of surprise:_

 _:recon you will hold until back up arrives:_

Naruto didn't bother with a reply, he changed his channel.

 _:201 to all recon unit's - lead is sending support out our way - hold all combat until they arrive:_

 _:that will blow all our intel:_

Naruto cut his radio out to prevent hearing Nara complain about Gin for the tenth time that day. The cover of darkness and the sound of rain hid their approach, towards Nara and Shoto's position. A small hollow in the top of a massive elm tree.

"what do you want from me?"

"only your time!"

"nothing else?"

"maybe your body too."

Naruto and Kaori slid into the hollow once the challenge and pass were complete.

"that fucking ass hole knows this will blow our intel and he still fucking does it!" Nara was angrily stabbing a stick figure carved into the wood of the tree with the word Gin carved underneath. "we spent four days working on this shit and he said fuck it, well fuck you too buddy!"

"has he been doing this long?" Kaori questioned.

"only when we're back here." She laughed.

Naruto stripped to his underwear throwing his wet clothes on to a ninja wire hanging on the ceiling, he tried his hardest to not stare down Kaori as she did the same thing but failed miserably. Kaori was unlike most Yamanaka, she preferred to use taijutsu and her body showed it.

He pulled one of their many blankets up to lay down Kaori slid underneath it with him, she moved back all the way to him until she became a little spoon, "wake us in an hour!"

* * *

Naruto would never complain about waking up, he may dislike the whole plan the council had hatched. He may have disliked the fact that he hadn't had free time in over a month, but he would never complain about waking up during this training. He carefully extracted his hands from Kaori's bra memorizing the flesh underneath it one last time before separating. He placed his hands on her back and shook. She woke quickly but refused to leave the warmth of the blanket, as most humans do.

"are they here yet?" Morio shook his head from his position underneath his own blanket.

"they just radioed in, their fifteen minutes out." Kaori nodded and pressed back up against him, before spinning around bringing their faces close together.

"that for me?" she whispered in his ear then winked in a way that he'd seen Ino try on Sasuke, Kaori made it work. She laughed before slipping out of the blanket.

"uhhhh…" she wiggled back into her uniform smirking at him occasionally before tying her blond hair into a bun and leaving the hollow.

"ha! you've got it bad!" Naruto glared at Morio.

"shut up you look too." The young man shook his head.

"nah I don't like that." Naruto snorted

"ya right!"

"no I mean I literally don't like that, im gay."

"huh…what? But…what?"

"you didn't know? I thought you knew me and Shoto….you really didn't know?"

"but you.."

"you really are clueless!"

"shut up!"

"get ready their almost here." Naruto was relieved both that Nara had interrupted them and that he came in dry. Getting dressed was a little awkward at least on Naruto's side.

"dude if it bothers you-"

"No!" Naruto didn't wanna give up a friend just because they were different "I just never met someone that's…ya know"

"gay."

"yes."

Morio shrugged "im just a regular guy man."

"I suppose everyone has something, it's just….im sorry."

"it's fine, just don't be a dick about it." Naruto snorted "I walked into that one"

Their gear was packed just in time for their support team to arrive. four ANBU recruits dropped down from the shadows. Compared to his own teams' short canvas cloaks the rest of second platoon had snagged longer full sleeved cloaks.

"what's the plan?" Naruto sighed

"were not gonna go after them." Nara said, "we've had eyes on them for a long time now, they're a recon team just like us attacking them would give away our position and blow whatever patrol and guard intel we've gathered."

"Gin gave us an order to capture them, they may know more than you guys have collected."

"they're gonna have check-in times, just like we do, if we tip them off once they're gonna change everything and then we're gonna have to wait to gather new info, and its gonna get a lot more complicated than what we have now.",

"look." Naruto interrupted the pending argument "we can't attack until they're far enough away that it makes sense for them to be attacked, this close to the base and they're gonna fuck our shit up. But we can give you this to take to Gin." He turned to Kaori, she pulled out her notebook.

"im not done copying it, I can give this to you in like a half hour." The four nodded

"we'll call it in." Nara disappeared back into the hollow, Naruto assumed to resume stabbing his drawing, Kaori was laying on a branch writing in a new book. Morio and Shoto went to do the next scouting patrol. The three that had stayed behind stood listlessly.

"you guys wanna go inside or-"

Shoto appeared on the branch next to them "they're digging tunnels, I found one on accident when I tried to get under the traps."

"do you know where they lead?"

"out everywhere, if I had to guess I would say its Akari making them, she's the only other earth specialist that in know was trying to join the ANBU, they're pretty extensive."

Nara popped his head out "I heard tunnels!"

The fourth ANBU returned "Gin still wants us to-"

"Kaori!" Naruto interrupted him "give them what you got, we've got tunnels to map!" she popped up from her position and handed over a notebook. "we'll get back to you on that whole capture thing, bring that back to Gin."

"Gin's not gonna be happy we didn't bring back-"

"I don't care what gin wants, he's getting what we give him, go back and let us do our job!" Naruto could feel the sneer behind the man's mask before the four ANBU disappeared.

"are we really mapping tunnels?"

"fuck no! just find entrances and exits mark them on our map then we'll send it all in and prepare for an assault."

The rest of the day was spent finding the exits. When Shoto had said they were extensive he had meant it. Each one extended a mile out from the main fortress, and each tunnel had multiple exits. But Naruto knew what they gathered was enough.

 _:lead this is recon:_

… _.._

 _:lead this is recon:_

"something wrong?"

"Gin's not picking up."

 _:lead this is recon-_

 _:what do you want:_ Naruto smiled at how annoyed the man sounded

 _:we've successfully scouted the enemy AO – mapped all traps, escape routes, and ambush points – we believe that after the next intel drop you will be able to plan a successful attack on the enemy base:_

 _:good to hear you can do one thing right – drop the intel at the usual spot:_

"we're good, let's take this in tell the others to meet up at uhm"

"Charlie point."

"ya that."

 _:222 this is 282 – rendezvous at Charlie point me and 201 will proceed with intel drop:_

 _:roger that:_

The old lightly rotten trees of the swamp were excellent for Naruto to maneuver in, with his habit of using all four limbs when he moves, he flew through the swamp. Kaori barely kept up with her own run. Then the wind shifted and he halted, Kaori stopped behind him.

"what's wrong?"

"you smell that?" her body language called him dumb. "I don't recognize it, or them" they moved forward slower than before, Naruto withdrew the knife that had been issued to him. The drop point was a willow tree hidden in a tight cluster of basswood trees. On the willow tree, five recruits sat. Naruto and Kaori sat on a Spanish oak tree fifty meters away.

"third platoon."

"The wind's gonna shift again then their gonna have our scent."

"can we move out of the way?"

"we can try but-" the winds shifted there was a tense moment before one recruit perked up, he said a few words then the five vanished. They didn't move or make a sound. The wind whistled through the trees, sending yellowing leaves throughout the air.

Naruto rolled left dodging the downward strike that had come from above, the recruits friend didn't jump fast enough Kaori punched the first one in the face, shattering his mask and launching him off into the cluster of basswood trees. Naruto caught the one set to ambush Kaori, tackling him out of the air and down on to the ground below. He landed with a crack, Naruto rolled off of him ducking under a kunoichi's wild swing with her sword, the blade hit the ground and Naruto stepped on it, pivoting into her guard he delivered an elbow to the girls temple knocking her out.

Kaori leaped from branch to branch before catching on to a springy basswood tree she latched on letting the tree bend as far down as it could, then she released landing softly on the ground, it snapped back up, slapping into her pursuer knocking him out of the air. Before he could hit the ground, she grabbed his leg and tossed him. He cracked the Spanish oak they had been on, sending splinters flying in the air.

The last recruit fell out of the oak, landing on his feet between the two of them. He rushed Naruto sword at the ready, slash, parry, slash, parry with a spin. The man stumbled forward into Kaori's fist after naruto's spin, he spun in the air landing on his stomach gasping for breath.

"sense for others I'll tie them up." She nodded and formed a hand seal.

Naruto found he could move only two recruits the one he had knocked out and Kaori's final hit, the others looked like something important was broken. The girl was out, and he didn't want to waste any smelling salts on her the other one was still struggling for air.

"we're clear as far as I can tell." Naruto kneeled down to the one that was awake

"How'd you find this pace?"

"Your…...Capitan…..he said…..you were guaran….guaranteed a …..spot said…if you were taken out….it would let some of…some of us stay…..stay in the training….for a bit longer."

"that son of a bitch!"

"really you're surprised by this?" Naruto was in shock how was he the mature one in this situation.

"I can't believe it! Who the fuck thought this guy would be a good leader?"

"he's had it out for me since we got here."

"ya but this is extreme! He basically set a hit out on you! How are you okay with this?" she yelled out.

"this….this is normal I guess?" her mask was off.

"how can this be normal? How can you just accept that these people hate you for no reason?"

"they have a reason." He glanced at the gasping man "I'll tell you guys later but for now, we should radio this in, go ahead knock him out." The man looked startled.

"no wait p-" her fist smashed into his face shattering his mask.

 _:lead this is recon:_

 _:…'cough'…Go for lead:_

 _:we've got apprehended enemy combatants, along with our intel drop:_

 _:good…..good a unit will be there to pick it up…..good work:_

* * *

It was raining and dark by the time they reached Charlie point, a massive hollowed out fallen tree, two miles from the enemy base, the November cold began to set back in but that's not what bothered Naruto. What bothered him was what he was gonna tell Kaori tonight they hadn't spoken a word on the trip back. And not talking to who was rapidly becoming one of his best friends hurt.

"took you guys long enough, you two finally fuck?" Nara who was on the first watch joked with them.

"no, we found out that captain put a hit out on Naruto, and Naruto here just accepted it as normal!" they entered the tree, blankets had been set up to block the wind from blowing through, and a small fire was going in the center.

"Gin put a hit on you!" Shoto stood from where he was cooking a stew, and Morio woke up. Now they were all gathered, _just great._

"ya, he thinks Naruto has a guaranteed spot in ANBU! And tried to take him out so that there would be more space!"

"I do have a guaranteed spot." Naruto plopped down on the floor taking his mask off.

"what?"

"I do have a guaranteed spot, he didn't put a hit out on me for that though he put a hit on me because he hates me. Not because I probably pranked him not because of being a dead last terrible ninja. He did it because Im a jinchuriki, at least I think that's the word ero-sennin used."

"you're a jinchuriki! You? A jinchuriki?"

"yes, could you not use that word though."

"I mean I've pretty much always known." Naruto glared at Nara

"I know you knew, it's you guys I was worried about." He looked down at the floor not acknowledging Kaori's pity stare.

"that's why you just accept everyone hating you?" she finally said

"I don't accept it I just expect it." She stared for a moment before she huffed before stomping down the tree. Naruto wasn't gonna cry.

"like you said everyone does have something, you're just a regular guy man." Naruto looked up at Morio.

"thanks…I guess?"

"hey look, I don't care that you're a jin…a whatever, but I kinda? Know what you're going through? I mean I don't know exactly because I don't have a…..well I guess…when I came out to my family I just…." Shoto sighed.

"I get it."

Naruto woke up cold and alone for a moment he thought he was back in his apartment, the past days spent sharing a blanket with Kaori had spoiled him. Nobody spoke to him, nobody spoke period. They spent a few hours just doing mindless chores in silence, Naruto was out looking for food when they got the call.

 _:recon this is lead-2:_ Asami's voice snapped through the headset in his mask

 _:send it lead-2:_

 _:rendezvous at your previously marked point bravo – an assault on the base is being launched today – your teams knowledge of the area is needed:_

 _:copy that lead-2 we'll be there in thirty minutes:_

When he arrived back at their camp most of it was already packed up. "good we got the call, where assaulting the base today."

"this isn't a trap from Gin is it" Naruto shook his head.

"I got the call from Asami said to meet up at bravo point." They nodded and got ready to move out.

"Kaori?" she was packing what little she had got out the night before "umm"

"I thought we got you to stop acting stupid! Did last night change that?" Naruto blinked and met her blue eyes.

"no. no, it didn't." they both smiled.

* * *

thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed the first chapter. again I apologize for any grammar issues.

yes, I did update pretty quickly, but like I mentioned before I have been planning this story for quite awhile

leave a review, hate, criticism or like.


	3. Chapter 3

I apologize for grammar errors, Polish is my first language, not English. I speak and type English fluently but I do sometimes struggle.

 _:radio chatter:_

 _word - word_ = break in radio chatter

I do not own Naruto.

please enjoy!

* * *

Naruto flew through the swamp; the December sky was blocked out with dark grey clouds. It was nearing the end of their second month in the swamp, and out of the two hundred recruits that had arrived only fifty or so remained. the original platoons had been split, and self-formed teams now ran through the swamp.

Kaori landed next to him matching his pace as they ran towards their objective. Earth rose from the ground creating a tower of stone in the center of their AO, a large shadow wrapped around it before constricting, sending large chunks of earth falling to the ground. a few screams punctured the air as dirt and stone crushed their competition.

They skirted the edges of the stone shower, before leaping over a small man-made clearing. "four people…one is our target!" shinobi rarely knew when they would be in battle, a person could be in the rear guard, watching a fight go down before an enemy materialized out of the ground beneath them to fight. Knowing and being able to prepare for their ambush was a great boon. They crashed into the startled recruits, Kaori sent one through a tree with her fist. Naruto landed on another, taking the kunoichi out of the tree she had been on and sliding her through the dirt.

The two remaining recruits rushed them, their weapons shaky in their hand from a poor grip, Naruto ducked under their targets wild swing moving past him to his final guard. Surprising the man with a slash from his knife. Kaori grappled their target, engaging him in a strength contest, one that she would undoubtedly win. The man grunted as his arm caved, snapping under the pressure Kaori put on the man.

Their target collapsed on the ground, he tried to roll away. Kaori grabbed his armor lifting him with one hand she clenched her fist.

"please don't!" the man's mask shattered. A horn blared in the distance signaling the end of the exercise.

"two for two baby!" Kaori shouted out. They dragged the injured and unconscious recruits a mile to the rendezvous point. A large tree with a multitude of holes in it large enough to house the remaining recruits, they dropped the injured off, adding more to the growing pile of groaning bodies. The medical ninja glared at them when they set them down.

Their hollow was small, large enough for the two of them and sat at the beginning of a large branch. A maskless bruised Morio sat in front of the entrance, Shoto was carefully applying cream to his injuries. Nara laid further down further away presumably sleeping. Naruto and Kaori ditched their masks and armor in their hole.

"here." Morio handed them a ration bar, "your gonna to have to share."

"thanks." the bar was dry and almost tasteless.

"I heard a roomer that we were getting out of here soon," Shoto said.

"where, we're not exactly a gossiping bunch."

"Asami, she's fucking turtle-22 by the way, she said that he said that some of us might be leaving soon."

"I don't know if I trust this source."

Shoto just shrugged, "it's what I heard"

* * *

Naruto snapped awake, something moved outside his hole. He peeled Kaori away from him drawing her arms out from under his shirt. He pulled his dagger out of his thigh holster, crouching low and out of sight. A hand entered then the front of a body, Naruto didn't hesitate to bring this knife down and through the body. His knife entered a log, bracing his free hand against it he pushed out, shoving the person that had been behind the first enemy. He kicked the log up knocking the person back before dropping his knife and the log. The fist he was about to throw got caught and forced behind him in an armbar. There was a flash of white then nothing.

* * *

Naruto couldn't move, the where ever he was, was dark. Not the dark of the night but an inky blackness that crept into his soul. He couldn't feel anything except for a chill that hurt him to the bone. "who are you?" an androgynous voice asked. _More torture training?_

"recruit-" it felt as if someone stabbed him in the gut with ice. the air was forced out of his lungs as he gasped.

"wrong."

"recruit-" it pierced his head, he arms shook and he splashed into water as he collapsed to his knees. "fuck!"

"wrong" the voice was sterner

"re-" the ice turned to fire, spreading throughout his body. His face splashed in the unseen water, his heavy breathing scattered droplets into the dark air. The agony of the pain sent spasms throughout his entire body.

"who are you?"

"Naruto! Im Naruto!" he sobbed into the ground, unbridled shame ripped through him at breaking so fast.

"wrong"

"no…no! im naruto please, don't!"

"Naruto Uzumaki is a genin of Konohagakure, a ninja with no potential, and no purpose. You are ANBU, you are the best Konohagakure has to offer. So Dog who are you?"

"d…do…..dog?"

"is that a question or an answer?"

"I'm Dog!"

"very good!"

The light was blinding, forcing his eyes shut till tears came out. The pain receded leaving him shuddering on the cold cement floor. It took him a minute to stop shaking when he finally stood, he realized he was surrounded. ANBU lined the walls of the room, their masks silently judging him with cold stares.

Then he realized his clothes were different. The black shirt and pants he'd worn in the swamp had been replaced with new ones that fit comfortably. The armor over them was molded to his body, resting perfectly around him.

"dog-9!" the ANBU in front of him with a solid black mask spoke "you are now a blade of the leaf. A weapon to be used against our enemies. As such you are being given a gift!" the man's white cloak ruffled as he removed a dog mask decorated with black lines from his cloak. Naruto almost snatched it out of his hands, staring down at the mask, Naruto realized how much he wanted it. At the beginning of training, he was bitter, angry that he had been forced into this but now, here in a dark room surrounded by dark figures being told he would join them, that they wanted him. He knew he would never let them down.

The mask was perfect on his face, despite not possessing eye holes he noticed that there were no problems with his vision. He heard a crackle as the air he breathed was filtered through the mask.

"dog-9 you are being assigned to Konohagakure ANBU recon division they will ensure you perform to the best of your ability's. operative dog-1 will escort you!" a fellow dog masked ANBU stepped out he towered over Naruto.

"Dismissed!"

Naruto practically bounced as he followed dog-1, the tall man walked briskly through the village. Naruto couldn't help but notice, that the crowds parted for them, and the stares were no longer stares of contempt, but adoration, and reverence.

ANBU were spread throughout the village into four different divisions. Recon, heavy combat, intelligence, and special duties. Each divisions headquarters was located in a different sector of the village. recon was located on the south side of the village in a seedier part of town. Dog-1 walked around a decrepit old bar with flickering lights in its front, advertising a cheap beer. The back alley was empty, and a back door to the bar was locked.

"Im proud of you." Naruto blinked at the older ANBU.

"huh?" the man removed his hood, naruto would recognize that hair anywhere.

"kak-" he was interrupted by a hand "r-right sorry."

"you did good, they said you and that little makeshift team of yours were some of the best they've had come through in a while." While Kakashi didn't stand like he normally did, Naruto could still picture the eye smile the man was probably making behind his mask.

"thanks, sensei. I tried my best!" Kakashi nodded.

"now on to the important stuff! With your induction into the ANBU, specifically recon, there is a lot of things you're still going to need training on. It's the reason your training was the only operation based. We can't have ANBU secrets being given to discouraged recruits that got kicked out. So there's going to be a short introduction, along with a lot of studying." The taller man pulled out a small booklet "this is your new bible, study it memorize it, and whatever you do don't lose it."

Naruto opened the book and skimmed through, "protocols….ranks…..divisions…..procedures."

"very important stuff, now let's go meet whosever still here today!" Kakashi went through hand signs slow enough for Naruto to watch. "use these to enter any ANBU safe house or supply drop, they identify you as recon, your tattoo will also pulse as well, so don't freak out about it."

Naruto looked at his shoulder noticing for the first time the small red tattoo marked perfectly on his skin. He brushed his fingers across the ink, flinching at its sensitivity. Kakashi disappeared through the door without opening it. Naruto brought his hand up, sending chakra through his body molding it with the hand signs. It flared out of his tattoo and towards the door.

Behind the door was the same inky blackness from before, he took a moment to calm his nerves before stepping through the door. To door slammed shut behind him, and the darkness faded. An ANBU tackled him to the ground her wolverine mask bared its fangs in an intimidating manner.

"you made it!" Kaori's voice sounded out from behind it "they put us all in recon, everyone's here! Nara said they would put you in special duties, but I knew they wouldn't split up the outcast club." She helped him up. "

"Ahem!"

"Oh, right you need to start indoc! We'll be in the training room around the corner!"

"who's that?" Naruto blushed behind his mask but gave none of it away with his body.

"that's…uh k-wolverine, she's my friend."

"just a friend hmm?"

"shut up!"

"no need to get rude, now come on you'll meet the recon division leader, then you go to the training room for briefs."

The recon divisions base was two hallways running parallel with doors on the outside of the halls. The two main hallways were connected at seemingly random points with hallways that lead to rooms in the middle. The end of the hallway they were in ended in a connection, with a single door sitting at the center. Kakashi knocked before entering without waiting for a reply.

Inside there was a small operation control center, five ANBU sat quietly reading over reports and pointing at maps. A sixth ANBU in a grey rat mask was sitting at a desk, waving them over.

"dog! Errr, dog-1 its good to see you again! glad to see you finally back in action."

"Thanks, though I can't say its good to be back, it does feel…nice?"

"you'll get back in the swing of things soon. anyway" the rat masked ANBU turned to him "little dog welcome to the club! I expect great things from you here."

"thanks….. I'm excited to be here." Rat nodded.

"now I've been briefed on who exactly you are." Naruto slumped "but here in recon we do not care, at worst someone here will see you as an asset, or a means to an end. If you have any issues, with your status, come to find me and I'll help sort it out." Naruto nodded his head.

"thank you."

"I assume Big dog gave you a book already, so what you're going to do from now until probably next week, you and your future team will be poring over ANBU guides and policies."

"my future team?"

"you think we'd graduate the five of you four months early to just split you up, no you all meshed well, and performed even better. Splitting you up would have been detrimental to the village. of course, we can't just send out rookies on their own so for a while, big Dog here will be your guide."

"really" naruto spun to Kakashi "sensei your going to lead us."

Kakashi shrugged "for a bit, but then you are going to be taking over."

"me?"

"yes you!" Rat said "you didn't think we would just give you Dog-9 without any responsibility. Dog-1 here was one of the best ANBU we had, you're going to be his replacement!"

"but-but-"

"no buts, only results! Now go to the training room your briefs will start soon." Rat waved them off signifying the end of the conversation.

"come on little dog," Kakashi said with a smile naruto couldn't see. "its time to meet your team!"

The training room was in the first connection between the two main halls, the room training room its self-was kind of small, with only a dozen desks inside, a small stage sat in the front center. Naruto's friends sat, somewhat together on the left. Shoto made space for him to sit between himself and Kaori.

"na…err"

"dog-9"

"dog its good to see you again, Wolverine said you were here but I thought she was just trying to pull a prank." Despite the bee mask on his face, Naruto could tell that it was Morio with his red hair. "I'm bee-38 by the way."

"spider-44." Nara was short straight and to the point "if your dog-9 that probably means your going to be our team leader."

"what no way! Why would they make you the leader?"

"he's twelve and performed better than most of the jonin in the class, of course, their gonna make him a leader!"

"Im thirteen."

"but what about you spider your Nara, that makes you the smartest one here." Shoto in a lion mask said

"just because I'm smart doesn't make me a good leader." the door slammed open

"good you're all here." A Cat masked ANBU entered the room the cloak blocked any view of the person's body, "Im Cat-11, recon divisions logistics officer. Im in charge of making sure everyone is caught up with policies, paperwork, and ensuring you all are equipped properly for your missions." Cat's voice was androgynous making Naruto try to guess even more. "you have your basic ANBU guides, but these" Cat drew the word out while pulling out five massive books from his/her cloak. "are your recon guidebooks!"

The book was thicker than the length of his head, he flipped a few pages open. " you don't have to memorize this book like the other one, but I would recommend, chapters fifteen, twenty-two, thirty, fifty-seven, and sixty-four. Now on to the important bits!"

* * *

The three days Naruto had been an official ANBU member had been the most boring days in his life, they sat in the small training room and slept in a nearby team room, unable to leave. For hours on end, they listening to Cat's androgynous voice talk about, reconnaissance duties, paperwork required for a proper ANBU report, ranks within ANBU who to talk to and who not to, inter-village politics and international politics. Naruto hated everything about going to the academy, and this was almost worst. In the back of his mind, he realized that this was what the Hokage dealt with on a regular basis.

"Hey, they're finally letting us out of here tonight!" Kaori chatted excitedly "we need to do something."

Morio nodded along "I know this great place near my apartment, its perfect for a little celebration!"

"we could meet up, beforehand."

"ehh, my apartment's probably not the best place to meet up."

"my clan compound should work, as long as you don't bother the deer."

"really you're going to let us in your place."

"were not the Hyuga."

"right so, meet at Nara's place, what like nine o'clock then head over to whatever place Morio will lead us too."

"sounds like a plan!"

"Enough chit-chat, we're not going to have our planned lesson." The team sat up straight, excited that they would be released early "there is a situation brewing in and around Takigakure, Oto forces have been moving around the area, and a small conflict has sprung up. The higher up are nervous this may be a power move not only by Oto but also Iwa and Kumo, who may or may not be sponsoring Oto forces. Now, this doesn't mean we're going to be deployed, this is just a warning that's been sent our way, mostly just keep an eye out for anything that might be interesting. Now I need to go attend a meeting about this so you guys have been given liberty throughout the city. Have fun and don't be stupid." Cat-11 disappeared in a perfect body-flicker.

Naruto realized a few things quickly when he entered his apartment, it smelled, a thick layer of dust had generated while he had been gone, and he had no clothes to wear out for tonight.

Someone knocked on his door, Kaori unmasked and in civilian clothes smiled when he opened it, then she frowned and gagged.

"Oh, my good naruto! What the fuck!"

"I didn't know I would be gone!" she coughed and fell back out into the hallway.

"god, come on were going shopping."

"what, why?"

"I remembered what you wear and I'll be damned if I go out with you looking like that, what civis do you have now."

Naruto went further into his apartment, Kaori followed, covering her nose. his jumpsuits hung in his closet, one had mold growing on it. The rest of his clothes smell like said mold.

"just" she coughed "wear the black shirt and pants!" she spun quickly whipping her hair into his face, it smelled amazing. Naruto followed obediently.

They walked in comfortable silence, Naruto admired her clothes, a simple blue shirt and black pants that worked well with her blonde hair, and sky blue eyes.

"like what you see?" he swallowed thickly.

"uhhhh"

She laughed, and it sent shivers up his spine. "don't worry, you still gotta grow a bit, but" she traced a finger down his cheek "I'd give it about a year!" naruto made a noise. "oh look were here!" Naruto was familiar with the shop, while not outright mistreating him, his presence put a damper on almost anyone's business. Kaori looked at him strangely.

"what's wrong?"

"I uhhhh don't really know if I should go inside."

"come on, it won't be that bad!" two people left as soon as he entered, and Kaori flinched.

"oh."

"ya, it happens a lot."

"no, it's not that their just leaking emotion like crazy!"

"Leaking emotions?" she nodded as they walked through the clothing, absentmindedly trailing her fingers through the clothes.

"it's the reason I cant us Yamanaka jutsu, im an empath, I uh sense emotions."

"like….all of them?" she smiled at him and he shivered again.

"especially the ones directed my way, but don't worry, you're not the first."

"Oh, I uhhhh, Hey I like this shirt!" he grabbed a random shirt, it was neon green.

"really?" he drooped down.

"no"

She snorted, "here I'll help im not as good as Ino at this but I get by."

When they were done it was nearing five o'clock, Naruto was sporting new casual clothes. A red shirt and a black pants, he had others but these were the ones Kaori said he had looked best in.

"if you want you can hang at my place until its time to go meet Nara."

"uhhhh no im good, I don't really wanna bother-"

"nonsense you'll be fine besides, your place is nasty and far away!"

"no really i-" she grabbed him by the collar and began dragging him along. Naruto tried to fight but he would never win a strength contest against the toned Yamanaka. The Yamanaka where not the largest clan in the village, in fact, they were probably considered more of an extended family than anything. They all lived in a single building that looked like a very large apartment complex, the bottom of the building was dedicated entirely to the family's flower shop. Naruto immediately regretted not fighting harder as Ino was there to greet him.

"when did you….what are you doing here!"

"Hey, Ino. Im uh here for because Kaori invited me." Naruto thought he had killed the habit of rubbing the back of his head but there it was, acting up again.

"you two are friends? How, when?"

"he was with me on that long mission I took. You know the one to suna for with the diplomats?"

"really, why'd they take you Naruto?" he shrugged.

"ahh, I don't really know, but I had fun." Ino gained a confused look.

"Kaori said it was really shitty." Naruto gave a hard look to Kaori who just shrugged.

"ya well, you know me im just a ball of sunshine." He laughed

"riiight, well anyway you being weird aside sakura should be happy to hear that your back but she's really busy training with lady Tsunade. Oh, Kaori daddy was looking for you once he got back, he should be upstairs in his office."

"cool well head up there!" she grabbed Naruto's hand dragging him off, Naruto didn't miss Ino's stare at the physical contact.

"you didn't tell me you were friends with ino."

"she's not my friend she's just a former classmate."

"hmmm, and whos sakura?"

"sakura's my teammate" she paused

"im sensing a lot of frustration….and a little confusion?"

"I used to like her, kinda I don't know I still might but." He paused to look at the older girl

"but your feelings are conflicted about another girl." She flailed out dramatically forcing him to catch her "oh the drama! The suspense, whatever shall I do knowing my dearest teammate is in love with another girl"

"you're an ass"

"you thought it was funny". She stopped in front of a door, she didn't even knock before a male voice called out to her.

"come in Kaori." She entered, pulling Naruto in with her. Out of all the Yamanaka in the village, only Kaori and inoichi were physically imposing, and inoichi dominated Kaori in that aspect. To the short naruto, he looked like a freakin giant.

"it good- oh whose this?"

"this is Naruto Uzumaki, he was on my 'mission'" she added air quotes, inoichi raised an eyebrow.

"I know who he is, I meant to say why is he here?"

"uhh, he's my teammate."

"your teammate? So your mission was successful?" she nodded "but you back really early."

"yep! They let us come home early because we did such a good job!" the man smiled.

"that's great news! I look forward to hearing more of your teams missions."

"I'm going to go say hi to mom and dad."

"you do that they missed you. Naruto im sure I'll see you around."

"uhh yes, sir?" Kaori laughed at him.

Meeting Kaori's parents had been exhausting, Kaori's mother, a non-Konoha native, had bonded with him almost immediately as both he and she looked nothing like a person native to fire country. His bright blond hair, tanned skin, and sea blue eyes made him look like he walked straight out of lightning country, a fact that Cat had pointed out during their three days in hell. Kaori's father was a Yamanaka, and despite being the brother of Inoichi, he was not as tall or as wide as the man himself, but he was no less intimidating. naruto had thought listening to their instructor Cat chewing out a stupid recruit was scary, but hearing Kaori's dad threaten him in his mind was way worse.

* * *

"I can't believe your first names Chimon!" chimon, aka Nara, grumbled into his drink, about annoying mothers that knew he hated his name, the rest of them laughed at his expense.

"it's not funny who names their kid gate of wisdom when they know their family is stereotypically smart, it's like saying here young children I want my kid to be teased." More laughter. "but did you guys really not look while we were up on the mountain?"

Morio, shoto, and Naruto shook their heads

"nah man, you seemed like you didn't want us to know, but now I know why!" they burst out into more laughter.

"I looked," Kaori said, "I looked long and hard, then I laughed for a long time, I also laughed whenever you said you were practicing keeping your identity a secret."

"you're an ass you know that!"

"I have been told."

"let's ignore, chi's -don't call me that- unfortunate name and get on to the real meat of this gathering." Shoto spoke loud enough for naruto's ears to hurt "you all know im no longer part of the inuzuka clan, due to a disagreement about my…preferences, but! That doesn't mean I don't benefit form somethings still, so the real dirty secret here today is, that Naruto and Kaori reek of each other!" the somber beginning of his monologue was doused out by the massive smile and finger he sent their way.

Naruto's face turned red and he scooted away from Kaori she did the same breaking the small contact they had had before.

"Ha, I knew you guys were up to something!" Kaori smiled.

"well I did go over to his place for a bit, then we hung out went shopping, then went back to my place, he met my parents."

"so you two went on a date that's all im hearing."

"of course not, he only cares for his sakura" she drew out sakura's name. Morio gasped in fake shock.

"Naruto you're a two-timer, I never would have guessed!"

"n-no it's not like that, ya'know" his hands flew up to his mouth their table was silent. Naruto dropped his head on the table.

"oh my god."

"He's got a catchphrase, Shoto, a catchphrase!"

Kaori was the first to break, throwing her head back and laughing loudly.

"I don't know why your laughing, it's your kids that are gonna inherit that." Morio and Shoto lost it at Nara's comment.

"it's not a catchphrase it's a speech imped-impediment!"

"he almost did it again!"

* * *

thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed the first chapter. again I apologize for any grammar issues.

leave a review, hate, criticism or like.


	4. Chapter 4

it's an ANBU Naruto story that I have been brewing in my head and on my computer for a while.

I apologize for grammar errors, Polish is my first language, not English. I speak and type English fluently but I do sometimes struggle.

 _:radio chatter:_

 _;hand signals;_

 _word - word_ = break in radio chatter or hand signals

I do not own Naruto.

waterfalls of death I

* * *

It became painfully obvious that Naruto was still a genin. his ability to wield the few skills he had were not at genin level, but it was still pretty obvious that his knowledge and number of abilities were still at genin level. Everyone on his team was chunin, with chimon being a special jonin. And they had the ability's to back it up.

The first team training day had seen Naruto get demolished in one on one spars. He'd held his own for a bit, but the rules of fighting like a recon operative had limited him a bit. His usual strategy of throwing numbers at someone, then smashing them with a big blue ball didn't really fit the billet. That's why he found himself training alone with Kakashi.

He rolled out of the tree he was in, landing on the ground, chakra roared into his legs before he shot off like a bullet, cracking the ground around him. There was a larger crack in the spot he had been in as Kakashi annihilated the tree he had been in. Naruto rolled into a bush summoning a shadow clone that sprinted forward giving Kakashi a different trail.

Naruto had grown accustomed to fighting higher level opponents in the past few months, and soon he found himself dipping his toes into fighting at that level, it terrified him. As a genin Kakashi had taken it very easy on him, the only time he's seen the man fight hard was against Zabuza, and that was almost too quick for him to even keep track off. Now he knew why people regarded Kakashi as one of the best ninjas Konoha had to offer.

"Boo!" Naruto lashed out with a fist before using Kakashi who had caught his fist as a swing, bringing his leg up for a downwards chop. The man was gone and Naruto destroyed part of the ground he had hit. Pivoting on his planted foot he launched a new punch behind him, Kakashi barely managed to dodge, Naruto's first grazing his armor in a non-harmful way. Kakashi grabbed his arm using two fingers to poke him making his arm go limp.

"that's not even fair!"

"tough luck little dog."

Naruto was sent flying.

* * *

Their team room operated as a resting place and a barracks when necessary, it had a small common area, fitted with a tv, a couch, and a small kitchen. It had two small bedrooms available if they needed to crash somewhere. Naruto had been staying there for the past week and a half since they'd gotten back. His apartment was dirtier than he thought and cleaning it had been a bit of a hassle, so much so that he had hired a cleaning service, that had hired a biohazard team, and they had told him it would be a month before it was livable again.

Kaori had offered for him to stay at her place, but Naruto had no intention of going near her father. Morio's apartment had been declared a no-go zone. Cimon's clan let people on to their grounds but not to stay, and shoto was in the same boat he was his apartment hadn't been cleaned while he was gone, though he would occasionally stay with morio.

Naruto's seal flared, four taps then a burn. Rat their commander had summoned them. it took fifteen minutes for the rest of his friends to get back to their room and change into their gear. Now they stood outside the OPS center waiting for Rat to call them in, Kakashi was missing. The door opened and Cat-11 gestured for them to come in.

"recon team twelve, code name JACKAL, a priority two mission has been given to us and you, are going to take it." Rat didn't waste any time, the normally relaxed and excited man was standing in front of them in a serious manner. " the situation in Taki has spread, and the Hokage want eyes on asap, teams six, eight, and nine are already in or near your AO. unfortunately, dog-1 has been called away on a priority one mission and will be unable to support you, cat-11 has further details for you in the briefing room."

Cat was waiting for them in the briefing room, it was just the training room reorganized to meet their needs. Five packages sat on a long table near him/her as he/she stood at a small podium and gestured to the seats.

"yesterday afternoon, recon team six, code name MANTIS learned of an Oto research team entering the takigakure territory. At its head was this man." cat clicked a button, the screen behind him change from white to a picture of a ninja, Naruto knew who it was. "kabuto yakushi, Orochimaru's right-hand man and chief researcher. Why he entered we do not know, mantis team was forced to retreat shortly after this intelligence was gathered, they requested backup and your team is the only one on standby." Cat reached under the podium pulling out mission packets. "these contain everything you need to know about Taki's forces, Oto's forces, kabuto's abilities, the current political climate, and potential resources in the area. Your primary objective is an investigation of the Oto research team's agenda, the secondary objective is to capture intelligence that may be of interest. Your tertiary objective is optional, the assignation of kabuto yakushi only take this if the opportunity presents its self." He/she passed out the packages.

"this is the gear that intelligence determined will be vital to your mission, along with it are our new prototype masks." Naruto carefully opened the package, a small waterproof notebook and pen sat on top of a new canvas cloak, underneath sat scrolls of supplies, and a new utility belt. At the bottom of the package sat a new mask. The black lines had been redesigned, covering most of the white porcelain. When he put it on it he couldn't see.

"uhh, I can't see anything!" morio said.

"channel chakra into it."

His vision flickered on like a tv, words scrawled over the top of his screen, he turned his head. Kaori's wolverine mask was highlighted, and her vitals popped up in the bottom corner.

"it will take some getting used to, but the trip there should give adequate time to learn how to use it, it improves your coms, allowing for longer distance radio chatter. It also has a one-way video option that can be broadcast to the intelligence division, it has a telescopic mode. You can probably see, it designates your team and nearby ANBU operatives."

"it seems to waste a bit of chakra."

"while not moving yes it cant but it was determined by our research department that ninety-eight percent of ANBU operators, generate enough chakra to not worry about the drain. however we understand that things might get hairy, so your being issued secondary face masks shirts with built-in short-range communication sets." Cat reached into Chimon's package and pulled out a new black shirt, showing of the face mask on it. "your departure time is in your mission packet, make any final preparations necessary, squad leader Dog you have command!"

Naruto turned to his team, nervousness ran through his veins. "the packet said departure time is at 0700 tomorrow, be here at 0600 for final checks and prep." They all nodded before vanishing in body flickers.

* * *

Naruto sat in the team room, going over everything he had. He'd done it five times already but nerves had set in and now he could barely concentrate on the kunai he was holding.

"little dog?" Naruto jumped and looked up.

"Kakashi-sensei." He realized tears ran down his face. "im scared." Kakashi approached slowly, taking the weapon from his hand.

"why?"

"i-I don't know, what if they die, I've never led anyone in my life! And now they expect me to just run with this. I can't even keep my friend in the village and now…."

"Did anyone of your teammates bring up you being young, or inexperienced. Did Rat say anything or Cat?" Naruto shook his head unable to speak. "you know why? Because they trust you. Wolverine, spider, bee, and lion all trust you, they believe you can lead them to victory. The same way Rat trusts you to keep the team alive and to accomplish the mission."

"but-but-"

"all you need to do is trust your training, you think you can't handle it but I think you're going to be surprised at how well you do. Now I'm sure you're tired, and that your gear is in order so, ill pack this up for you, you go get some sleep."

"th-thanks ka-dog-sensei"

Naruto had never left the village anyway but the main gate, where you had to wait in line to be searched to both get into the village and get out of the village, they couldn't let people just walk out of a military village without searching them. so when they departed out of the village through a cramped tunnel Naruto kinda enjoyed it. The new mask provided a minor version of night vision in the dark tunnel allowing him to see Kaori's ass as she led them out of the tunnel. She turned her head back and Naruto could picture the smile she sent his way. When they left the tunnel the light started abruptly, his mask dimmed to protect his vision, allowing him to see better. Once the team was all out they rushed off without a word.

It took two days for the mission to go to shit. Naruto was running along the trees of fire country, closing in on the border, they would hit the snowcapped peaks of mountains then begin a descent into waterfall territory in an hour. Then he was running through water, the trees turned brown and melded together, melding into a strange but familiar place. He came to a halt, sending water splashing into the massive gates that held the nine-tailed demon fox.

He swallowed thickly, its red eyes pierced his soul studying him with an intelligence he couldn't comprehend.

" **we have a problem."**

Its body came out of the darkness, Naruto almost fell back in terror at the sheer size of the beast.

"w-what's the problem?"

" **I do not care for humans as some of my brethren do, but I can understand your necessity sometimes. You mongrels provide pieces to a very intricate game played out by powers greater than your selves."**

The beast swished its tails, and Naruto thought for just a moment it might have been out of nervousness.

" **there are many things your kind does not understand…..occasionally you monkeys dabble in powers you shouldn't, this creates anomaly's, pieces that were not meant to be a part of the game. Because of this many of the powers, destroy the upsetting pieces. But you humans are crafty, smart even and some of this pieces aren't capable of being destroyed. So we lock them away and throw away the key."**

"someone found a key" the Kyuubi looked pleased.

" **I see you have grown a bit, but yes someone has found the key and the door."**

"they unlocked it, and if you're telling me this…you want me to stop it?"

" **it is not possible for you to stop it, only burn it away. We created a safety for this, a power that could be used to halt this corruption's progress. But with your limited knowledge of the world and lack of time and ability to track down those with this power, I am forced to assist you."**

A coil of the Kyuubi's chakra seeped out of the gate, Naruto took an involuntary step back.

" **take this gift, I do not wish for you to have it, neither will I help you control it. I will give you the basic knowledge, that's it."**

"but why shouldn't we tell someone?"

" **you are a fool."**

The worm of chakra launched forward, wrapping around his hand, sliding up his body scorching him where it touched, then it entered through his mouth. visions flew through his mind. Battles wars long ago. Dark creatures made of an inky blackness being burned away with fire. Then his body burned.

* * *

"dog! Dog!" Naruto gasped awake, still feeling the fire course through his body.

"I'm up, I'm up. Im okay" he panted heavily.

"you've been out for four days. You had a fever yesterday that was abnormally high." Chimon held he green covered hand over Naruto's head.

"you didn't tell us it was abnormal!" Kaori yelled at him.

"you overreacting is exactly why."

"how high was it?" the elusive Nara looked down at him

"one hundred and seventy-three."

"what!"

"holy shit!"

"you seem to have recovered, but your body temperature is sitting around one hundred and forty-eight. Aside from that, your vitals are all normal."

"what happened aside from that?"

"you collapsed after we hit the mountains, we're stuck in a cave on the Taki side of the border." Kaori sounded concerned "are you sure you okay?"

"ya, I just…the Kyuubi did something….I don't know what, but…..I don't know I feel strange."

"the nine tails did this to you? We should probably go back!"

" _ **NO!"**_

Naruto winced, clutching his head.

"Hey, are you okay?"

"he…he didn't like that idea."

"he can hear us?"

"I don't know I guess? This is the most interaction I've ever had. He said there was something…something in Taki that needed to be stopped!" he frowned "or at least locked away

"Kabuto?"

"no I don't think it means Kabuto, he was nervous about something else."

"the Kyuubi was nervous! And it wants us to go near whatever makes it nervous. Great, this mission just got better."

"you guys should go."

"what, why would we do that?"

"the Kyuubi was nervous! The strongest being on the planet was nervous about something I don't want you guys to get killed following me there."

"so, you're just gonna go on your own!" Kaori and Naruto were now facing each other,

"yes I don't want to lose you..guys" morio coughed.

"we're not leaving you to fight whatever this is, I would hate to see what dog-1 does to us if we did."

"guy-"

" . .you. now come here you look like you need some rest."

"I just slept for four days!"

"and you look like you could use four more, now, Bee get a fire started, lion your on cooking duty."

Naruto didn't know why he stuck his hand out towards the small bundle of sticks in the center of the cave.

"Naruto what-"

"burn" white flames flew from his hand, igniting the sticks and splashing onto the ground around them. the sticks burned immediately, then the rock started to melt. The ANBU stared at Naruto with unbridled shock.

Despite being north, Takigakure was stuck in a perpetual, muggy summer. They had missed the cold season during training, and mid-January was the beginning of the equivalent of spring aka rain season. The shock of Naruto using flames hot enough to melt rock had yet to wear off. Naruto doubted it ever would, but they were unable to ponder what exactly had happened and what exactly the Kyuubi had done to him. After food and rest by the very warm fire, jackal team had left the safety of the cave and down into the massive valley that was Taki territory. Even from the bottom of the mountain, a massive tree that sat in the center of a small lake in the valley could be seen. They didn't have to guess as to where the hidden village was.

The rain bounced off their cloaks, keeping the partially dry, as they made their way through the overgrown grasslands that stretched out to the forest that would house the village. they zigzagged silently through the grass, preventing a 'shimmer' effect from giving away their movements. An explosion went off in the distance.

Naruto signaled for them to drop, Shoto sank into the earth. Naruto watched his mask signature move forward through the ground towards the enemy. He formed hand signals.

 _;spider, bee set a trap – wolverine prepare for combat;_

Shoto returned faster than he left his seal pulsing rapidly, he was spat out of the ground and rolled onto his stomach in front of Naruto.

 _;three teams – one taki – two Oto – taki winning – retreat heading our way;_

An explosion went off again this time closer. Naruto signaled his team to rally.

 _;avoid combat – move northeast;_

A stray kunai sailed over their heads, a statement to how close the combat was getting to them. they rushed away ignoring their last walking pattern and darted towards the forest. The noise of combat picked up then grew distant as they skirted its edges. Naruto caught a glimpse of a bloodied Oto shinobi sailing over the grass.

They stopped at the edge of the forest, circling around to get a view of the battle. Up in the trees, they could see everything. A swath of grass burned, in a trail leading to the current site of the battle, bodies littered the trail in deformed and grotesque ways.

 _;spider watch field – bee, lion set up guard – wolverine scout rear;_

Naruto dropped down to investigate the bodies the battle was far enough away he didn't worry. The first body was a Taki kunoichi. He knelt down next to her mutilated corpse, something had bitten her arm off and tore into her stomach with claws. he looked closer, the wounds were lined with black marks, black puss that seemed alive.

 _:spider this is Dog, am I clear:_

 _:your good:_

 _:im going to seal this body, something isn't right with it I-I don't know what it is:_

He withdrew a spare scroll from his utility belt, before sealing away the body. The next casualty was, something, it was a charred husk vaguely forming the shape of a human with one too many arms. Despite being nearly turned to ash the body was cooling rapidly. The next three were the exact same way, charred husks with an extra limb.

 _:dog you've got movement on your six:_

Naruto spun the first charred husk was rushing him on all fours, fives? Its mouth was open attached by a thin piece of flesh, a horrible hissing noise escaped it. He dodged to his left, rolling under its wild lunge. His mouth opened in a habit he hadn't had before. He spat white flames out onto the creature, it screeched loud enough to drown out the combat, before clawing at its body then dropping to the ground still. Something cracked behind him, the second being was standing up the bones inside snapping and twisting.

 _:dog get out of there all of those bodies are getting up:_

Naruto didn't hesitate to sprint away, siding out of the way of the wild swipes taken at him by the former corpses. He hit the trees and Jackal team broke formation, retreating deeper into the woods avoiding the trail of combat that had come out of it. They ran until the first person dropped out. Chimon sat on the branch of a tree breathing heavily.

"what the fuck where those things?"

"I don't know but they were dead, I checked, they were unmoving cooling corpses on the ground."

"not when we looked."

"It's probably what the Kyuubi was worried about." They passed glances at each other. "do you still have that body?" Naruto nodded pulling out the scroll he unsealed the body on the ground. chimon knelt inquisitively down next to it, tracing along the black lines before drawing he hand back sharply.

"what, what is it?"

"I don't know exactly, but it feels like a….i don't know a dirty version of a shadow."

"what?" chimon shrugged.

"I don't know its real creepy like, imagine like your skin, but instead of being clean, that layer just underneath the skin is dirty not the top layer."

"you're really bad at this." The dead body moved, they leaped back, Naruto's chakra roared to burn it.

The girl coughed. "what- what's going on?" her eyes darted around them "leaf, what?" then she groaned, her remaining arm came up to hug her stump. Blood poured out of her stomach wound, and her intestines flopped to the ground. she groaned again before the groan turned into a scream. Before their eyes her body changed, the black slime coating her injuries spasmed before sliding into her body, it traced around her veins, the girl screamed in pain. Kaori tried to approach but Naruto held her off.

"turn on your video!"

Spider tapped the side of his mask.

The girl screamed again, the black sludge, moved around in her in a visible bulge. The girl released a silent gasp, her eyes rolling into the back of her head, then they turned black. She continued to scream, clawing at her face with her free hand. The sludge moved, leaking out of her injuries and coalescing into different shapes and forms on her body. Black blood leaked out of her minor injuries.

The girl gave a final screech before, stilling. The slime vaguely resembling a replacement arm and an extra one on her stomach. Then she raised her self-up, her bones cracking as she moved. Her head dropped before righting its self, she opened her eyes. Black soullessness stared out at them, she smiled leaking more liquid out of her mouth, before she stood.

"kill it!" the ANBU launched kunai and shuriken at the body, it pierced it sending shudders though out the corpse. The blades fell out, dropping to the ground with dull thuds. The kunoichi? Charged Kaori, who dodged, Naruto breathed out the white flames. The thing screeched, black slime pulsing out of the body tearing it apart before it began to run as it died. The body dropped to the ground. the ANBU watched it burn for fifteen minutes be for anyone said anything.

"what the fuck."

* * *

thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed the first chapter. again I apologize for any grammar issues.

leave a review, hate, criticism or like.


	5. Chapter 5

I apologize for grammar errors, Polish is my first language, not English. I speak and type English fluently, but I do sometimes struggle.

 _:radio chatter:_

 _;hand signals;_

 _word - word_ = break in radio chatter

I do not own Naruto.

waterfalls of death II

* * *

They had nothing to say, nothing to do. What could you say after seeing something so impossible? Jackal team moved through the brightness of day. After witnessing the kunoichi's death and her 'resurrection' they hadn't wasted time sticking around. The battled nearby had finished, and despite Taki winning when they had arrived, with the information they had now, they weren't so sure in Taki's victory. The rain had picked up, and while they were dry due to the protection of their cloaks, a chill had settled along their bodies as they made their way to their AO.

Every new noise set them on edge, fear that another creature would rush out of them from the shadow was beginning to consume them. their AO was the northwestern part of Taki's territory right next to the border of the newly formed sound country. Telltale signs of battle littered the area, left behind kunai and shuriken. Destroyed trees and random rocks covered in blood told a story they had yet to uncover.

Jackal team found a cave hidden behind one of the many waterfalls that dotted the land. It took them ten minutes to get their temporary home defendable, and another ten to make it somewhat comfortable, Morio's seal on his arm allowing them to carry more items than necessary.

"I'll take first watch." Chimon sounded blank and distant, he disappeared into the shadows.

Naruto sat on his sleeping roll, writing everything he could about what had happened in their mission.

"you forgot your conversation with the Kyuubi." Kaori rested her face on his shoulder, pointing at his notebook.

"he…he called me a fool when I said we should tell someone. I know that doesn't sound bad but, usually his insults are way more creative, so I figured I should probably follow his advice, just this once." She pursed her lips thinking hard.

"but you'll tell us right?" he nodded.

"he said something about a game, that humans are a part of. I don't know what It means but he said they locked away things that weren't supposed to be a part of it, and that someone had opened it. He said that they had a way to control it but he didn't have time to find where it was, then he touched me."

"and you woke up and could use those flames." Naruto nodded.

"it could be a bloodline." Shoto said. "think there are rumors that bloodlines were gifted to us by the tailed beasts, but why would they give them to us?"

"because they…have another use!" Kaori sat up straight "think the first bodies we saw were all burned, the Taki nin knew that fire would stop those guys."

"but it wasn't enough, you saw them get revived. So the flames weren't enough."

"but naruto's were, they're hot, really hot."

"scorch release?" at their confused looks morio explained. "it's a bloodline in suna, I did some research after they attacked."

"so here's what we got." Kaori took his notebook and flipped a few pages and began to write. "there is a game between beings we don't understand. There are pieces in this game that they don't like so they lock them away. They create bloodlines to help keep whatever it is these things are, away."

"that somewhat makes sense."

"what we don't know, is who plays this game, and why."

It took them three days to successfully map out most of their area of operation, two-hundred and forty miles of forest and beachfront. While the towns and villages located in the AO were easy to find. The territory was filled with underground caves and rivers.

Dressed in civilian clothes, Naruto and Kaori were the first to go into a town, disguised as travelers from lightning country. Most of the town was abandoned, shops and homes damaged by a recent fight. Some citizens still stayed, though most of them seemed to be packing up. The inn they did find still open was surrounded by refugees.

The refuges paid no attention to them, more focused on their own misery. Women held on to wailing babies and, crying children. Bloodied men littered the ground, being cared for by a few selfless people. Upon entering, they were greeted with a grunt from a surly looking man and a smile from a downtrodden and weary-eyed younger girl. The inside was old and broken down, a few patrons sat at tables that looked like they were about to fall apart. Despite looking young no one batted an eye.

"what'll ya have." The man grunted out. Putting his large hands out on the counter.

"do you have any food?" he nodded but didn't move.

"as nice as those clothes are, can ya pay?" Kaori nodded and pulled out a bag of lightning currency, large silver coins. The man's face changed into something Naruto couldn't recognize.

"We've got chicken, and chicken what do ya want." He laughed at his own joke. Kaori tossed him more than what the chicken was worth.

"well take a drink and a room too." The man didn't relax, before nodding and calling out behind him to get food ready. When he sat the two drinks down in front of them, Kaori and Naruto retreated to a small table on the far right side of the room.

"he's a missing-nin." She said quietly into her drink. Naruto almost failed to act casual.

"really?" she nodded

"his hand his muscle tone and body are that of a taijutsu specialist, plus he used chakra subconsciously to call out to the person in the back." Naruto nodded.

"could we use him?"

"only for information, he's been out for too long, I think?" the plain-faced girl brought them food.

"miss, we're not from around here." Naruto offered a casual smile, and her cheeks lit up. "my sister and I were wondering if there is anything to see before we continue on to earth country?"

"oh well ya there's all kinds of things here, but the best thing is the great tree inside Takigakure…but its kinda dangerous right no it probably best to just leave quickly ."

"ya what's up with all that it seemed like there was a ninja fight here?" she nodded her head sadly "I don't really know what's going on but there's been a lot of fighting recently…and rumors." She looked around as if someone was going to attack her "they call it the blight. I-I've never seen it, but-"someone screamed outside,

"Airi stay here!" the girl nodded towards her father. he walked outside. Kaori stood up moving to look out a broken window. The screams spread, the refuges began to panic some tried to come into the inn.

"it's the blight he's got the blight!"

"RUN!" something groaned and roared. Kaori came back.

"we need to go!" the girl Airi screamed and fell down on her but. One of the dark monsters clawed its way through a window. The rests of the patrons scrambled up shoving chairs and tables in between them and the creature, its face now shadowed in darkness split revealing a human mouth growing horrible blackened fangs. It growled low and deep, sending shivers down the spines of those inside. The screams from outside turned into the dark screams of the monsters. Naruto didn't have to guess what had gone on outside.

"Naruto we need to go!"

"we can stop it!" she shook her head.

"it's too late this town's gone." The monster launched its self at the civilians tearing into them like a wolf against sheep. Airi screamed as it bit into her leg and dragged her away outside. The torn up dead began to move, clawing at themselves begging for help. A monster blew the door off its hinges and looked at them.

"but-"

"you're going to burn me if you use it, we need to go!"

Kaori punched the wall behind them blowing it away. The civilians still alive didn't hesitate to run out the large hole she created, the monsters hot on their heals catching up and tearing into them like cattle. They took the rooftops, keeping an eye on the writhing black sludge of bodies that tore through the remnants of the town, uncaring of buildings and objects.

Naruto unsealed his mask out of his shoulder tattoo, putting it on.

 _:Jackal team this is Dog - evacuate the area – the village has been compromised by what we are now calling blight – spider mark this town and the surrounding area in black:_

" **BURN"**

Naruto fell down into the street, coming to a stop after rolling aways.

"Naruto!"Kaori screamed

 _:we've got incoming:_ Morio's voice rang out in his ear. The rest of his team appeared on the building above him. At the edge of the street, a hoard of the dark creatures ran, tearing through the remaining civilians, and a few buildings. On their other side, Takigakure shinobi dropped out of the shadows.

"shit, shit, shit" Kaori landed next to him ignoring chimon's hand holding her back "get up, get up!" she grabbed his collar lifting him to his feet, the hoard growled as they closed in. "let's go!"

"cut a hole through the shinobi I'll guard the rear." She hesitated "go!" the deformed bodies howled as they charged, maws snapping open revealing black rotten teeth. Kaori lept away relaying orders to the rest of his team, who jumped towards the Taki shinobi.

The two fronts clashed, Naruto collapsed into a stance his mind was unfamiliar with, but his body moved fluidly. The white flames ignited, on his fists as he bashed and weaved his way through the snarling enemies. They tore at each other to get to him, and he set them ablaze. Their screams echoing into the destroyed village.

On the other side, shinobi met shinobi in a deadly dance of blades and fists. It was evident that Konoha ANBU was the superior fighting force. Kaori's raging taijutsu shattered bones and destroyed buildings. Morio sent a storm of kunai towards those trapped in chimon's shadows. Lion separated from the team to unleash devastating earth attacks on the enemy.

Naruto blasted away from the hoard using fire to propel him back, his chakra flared. One of the memories he'd viewed from the Kyuubi played through his mind. He copied it to the best of his ability, molding the chakra through strange hand signs he'd never seen before rearing his head back and unleashing a massive torrent of flame. The pressure vaporized houses and incinerated the dark creatures. His control slipped, and his hand burned in pain. He crashed to the ground, the four surviving creatures pounced, he rolled under their slow swipes settling into his stance, they rushed him again he spun around one raising his leg his foot ignited with the fire, he crashed it into the next one's head causing the creature to squeal. Using the momentum of the drop kick he flung his flaming fist towards smashing the next one in the chest, hist fist punctured through he winced as it clawed at his arm. The beast behind it ran into his outstretched fist. He spun flinging the burning bodies towards the returning creature. They all burned, they all screamed.

Kaori spartan kicked a shinobi into a house sending him through the wood. The world glowed white as Naruto unleashed a massive fire attack on the shadow monsters. The shinobi fight settled, the Taki shinobi watched him vaporize a massive section of the village.

"stop!" the fight ended, a tense silence settled over rival shinobi. "we can come to an agreement."

"that's not-"

"spider let me handle this." Naruto approached him, Kaori enjoyed his look as the bright white flames burned behind him, throwing a shadow across his masked face, his arm was bleeding.

"your hurt!" he attempted to shrug her off.

"it's nothing!" just looking at it wasn't nothing, the same black slime that had affected all the creatures now festered on his wounds.

"it's not nothing!" one of the Taki shinobi said "he's been infected, we need to-" naruto hand ignited.

"no wait-" to late he brought it up to the wounds, they sizzled. Naruto grunted and fell to his knees. The smell of burned flesh filled the air. The black slime squealed and reached out of the flames whipping around in pain before evaporating. Naruto collapsed to the ground breathing heavily. kaori caught him setting him down gently, ignoring her hands as they felt like they were on fire.

"Sir you know the protocols." The Taki shinobi were having an argument, chimon rushed to Naruto's side his hand glowing green, Naruto hissed when he set it on the self-inflicted wounds.

"what are these protocols?" she stood taking command while Naruto recovered.

"they're class-"

"they're orders to kill everyone that is near or around blight affected areas."

"Sir we can't-"

"we can't afford to let this just slide, he killed them. something no one has been able to do yet, are you gonna get mad they killed someone you weren't friends with or are you gonna get mad when they leave, and the blight takes over our country!" the Taki leader's eyes, visible behind his mask, glared at his juniors, they submitted. Turning their faces away in shame.

"that aside, what do you want." Kaori kept the conversation short.

"we're facing an invasion, a disease we don't understand and Oto shinobi who released the disease. Any help would be accepted."

"we'll help." Kaori spun to a rising Naruto, his arm was steaming, and everyone watched the burns and cuts seal up before their eyes. "but we're going to take your help too." The Taki shinobi nodded.

"anything!"

"we're hunting an Oto research team you help us find them, any blight we find I'll burn"

"deal! Ayano, Hanae go to the village bring an intelligence packet of everything we know about Oto here tell them were receiving adequate payment, in the form of help against the blight." The two nodded disappearing in body flickers, leaving the Taki nin outnumbered.

* * *

They claimed a house at the edge of town, the Taki nin vanished into their own across the street. Naruto scratched his head as his team stared at him.

"that was reckless." No one else said anything as chimon's statement was correct.

"I know" Naruto looked down at the ground "but-"

"they could betray us, summon a whole platoon to come down on us, sell out the information that a leaf team is here to Oto. Any number of bad things could happen now."

"and so could good things, if they actually help us they could lead us right to our objective, and we can't let the blight spread."

"yes, we can-"

"he's right" Kaori stepped in "it took over those refugees in seconds, the whole town was gone in a minute and a half, if that spreads it's not just over for fire country its over for the world."

"I still don't trust them!"

"good I don't trust them either. sort of, the leader seemed alright, but we're gonna need them if we're gonna find the research team, we've been here for days trying to find them and we have found nothing."

There was a knock on the house's front door. Naruto signaled for his team to get ready, they followed knives and jutsu were prepared, he looked to Kaori.

;anythin _g;_

She shook her head, he opened the door. The Taki nin leader had his hands up, his team behind him was at the ready but not aiming directly at him.

"we brought the package." And reinforcements Naruto noted. They followed him in, not backing down on their prepared techniques, neither did his own team. The tense silence refused to settle even when Naruto and the Taki nin too seats at a small table. The older shinobi opened the packet, pulling out folders and files. He spread a detailed map of the area out.

"we are here" he circled their location in red, then he pulled out a black marker, "these are the locations of the blight, it has not crossed this line here…and neither as a single Oto shinobi" he circled large swaths of land in black and passed a thick folder over to Naruto "that's, a map and dossier on the Otogakure shinobi in our country." Blue dots lined up across the map.

"what are these squares and purple?"

"we believe they are camps and the purple were locations they had visited, but the last team to go scout them didn't return."

"so, if im looking at this right we are technically behind enemy lines."

"technically you're behind everyone's line but yes, this side here is currently controlled by us, and this side here is where most battles are taking place."

"spider could you put this map on the other one?" he nodded and began to draw. The complete map looked like a mess but naruto could read it. "where did mantis team see the research team enter?"

"right here"

"bee what sector did we call these parts here?" morio unsealed their own personal map, lined with their own grid.

"1-G, 3-B, and 1-L"

"right so those parts are probably the best place to start looking." The Taki leader leaned over it "what can you tell me here."

"your uhh 1-L spot is where the first Oto team was spotted, but the blight didn't appear there until like three weeks later. 1-G was the first blight location." Jackal team cast glances at each other.

"when was this?"

"two weeks ago."

"that coincides with mantis's report." Naruto looked down at the black covered parts.

"all this in two weeks" the older man nodded solemnly

"it spreads quickly, we found fireworks best, but I guess you know that."

"dog" chimon spoke up "we can set up here." He pointed the more detailed map to where it said there was a cave. It was close to the spot of the first blight but far enough away that it wouldn't be an issue.

"our leader Shibiki tasked us with assisting you."

Naruto looked to Spider, who shrugged. "fine but we won't be outnumbered." the Taki nin thought for a moment the crease in his eyes giving away his age, the old man nodded.

"fine, call me ehhh fan."

"fan?" the man nodded

"it's a type of waterfall."

"psst, Dog I don't think they have code names." The tension was gone.

* * *

They departed the next day, moving in a two-column formation, one Taki nin to one Konoha Nin. It was evident that the Konoha nin were better when they had to stop and take a break, a few of the Taki nin were gasping for air at the pace they had stopped. After a short rest, they reached their planned destination at nightfall.

Naruto frowned at the things they had seen while running, burned out villages with dead bodies littering the streets, entire sections of forest burned to the ground. evidence of battle littered the area outside their small cave, despite their new budding alliance. The two teams of shinobi set up on different sides of the cave. Although to show some trust Naruto had said they should cook a meal together, which lead to a rabbit stew being prepared by a short Taki kunoichi named Hana and morio.

Chimon was reading a dossier on some the Oto forces in the area, Shoto was out on watch with another nin.

"how do you guys sleep in that?" Hana questioned, "it looks super uncomfortable."

"they're built specifically to each person so they're actually pretty comfy." Morio casually said.

"really?" she hesitantly reached out a had, tapping the hard mask "nah seems uncomfortable"

 _:jackal team this is Lion – heavy enemy movement – coming from our east – secure area for hiding – ill be back eta twenty seconds:_

Morio was quick startling the kunoichi into pulling out a kunai, he upturned the water on to the flames dousing it and sending steam into the air. The other taki nin puled their own knives out. Chimon ran through hand signs making the shadows seem darker.

"we've got incoming."

Shoto and the other Taki kunoichi barreled into the cave, Shoto releasing the jutsu he had prepared and making stalagmites rise from the floor, they moved to the back of the cave letting the shadows overtake them.

Thirty seconds later hundreds of Oto nin sprinted through the night past their cave, their dark forms filtering past the moonlit cave entrance.

 _;spider send video back to Konoha;_

The Nara nodded, taping the side of his mask.

 _;we left traps outside;_

No soon as it was passed out that did an explosion go off near their cave. Most of the rushing oto forces didn't hesitate to continue on leaving a squad of twenty to investigate and take the casualties. More explosions went off and a few screams rang out in the air.

It became clear to Naruto that the Taki nin were just a regular chunin team, and that their masks were just part of their uniform. Only the old man looked ready to fight.

"stay here" he whispered.

The first wave of Oto forces had passed, Naruto knew from their own intelligence based on the Konoha crush that the second wave would arrive in roughly three minutes.

 _;attack – silent;_

They moved quickly and quietly. Four Oto ninja near the cave entrance didn't have time to scream as their throat were slit. Naruto passed his team pulling out his knife, landing in the middle of three shinobi attempting to help a casualty

"ko-" the kunoichi gurgled on blood as Naruto stabbed her throat, the second shinobi was too shocked to do anything and died, just as quick. The final shinobi was quick, managing to whip out a kunai, Kaori flattened him when she landed on him. The thirteen shinobi left didn't know what hit them, they died under a hail of kunai and shadow.

 _:forty seconds:_

They moved to the bodies, disguising them as best they could before sprinting back to the cave. Morio was the last one to slide back into the shadow before the second wave of Oto forces stormed by. Their footsteps more audible than the initial charge.

"we need to go back!" the Taki nin were whispering harshly to each other.

"we can't we'll never make it through those two waves."

"we need to move. We hid the bodies, but their third wave will be here in six minutes and it's made up of their best."

"Our objective is probably the best place to go, its one of their camps with it being this deep behind their lines they're probably relaxed right now."

"fan we can't just leave our village!"

"we have to trust our comrades, they have their job and we have ours." The ANBU nodded before getting ready to depart. They ran as fast as they could, the Taki nin barely keeping up. The jonin and top chunin of Otogakure flew by where they had just been not minutes after they left. Explosions went off in the far distance as the first wave crashed into a defensive position.

"we were correct." The odd team of ten looked down from their vantage point. "that's the research team." Spider pointed down into the area in front of a large cave, a camp had been set up. Snow white tents litter the area, oto shinobi and civilians moved around.

Naruto was staring into the cave, the nine tails inside of him was roaring. "this is where the blight came from."

"how do you know." He didn't answer Fan, he just pointed. A Konoha ANBU was strapped to a chair, in the center of a glass case, a researcher entered carrying a syringe of black liquid. No one had to guess what would happen next. The ANBU broke quickly screaming till his voice was horse, then the sludge moved around him, bursting out at points spraying gore around the case.

The ANBU was no more only a dark monster stood in its place, it smashed against the case, cracking it and roared. They wheeled a new case next to a port in its side before opening it, a small deer walked out, the creature sniffed and turned. It picked up fawn despite its complaints and seemed to examine it, before flinching away and throwing the baby deer, it turned back out towards the humans and dried smashing the glass. They pressed a button and flames shout out the bottom roasting the deer and causing the creature to scream and thrash around.

"we need to destroy this place."

"does anyone see Kabuto?"

"he's probably in the cave."

Naruto turned to the taki nin.

"we'll begin the assault, you finish it." They looked ready to protest. Jackal team jumped from their positions, raining kunai on the visible shinobi. Civilians scattered and ran screaming.

 _:search the tents quick:_ Naruto ran to the nearest tent, grabbing visible papers. The Taki nin had arrived and began fighting the remaining Oto shinobi.

 _:I haven't found anyone left:_

 _:same here:_

 _:nothing:_

 _:we should check the cave:_

Naruto sprinted out of the tent towards the dark cave, meeting his team at the edge before they ran inside. Their night vision did nothing to help them see, they moved slowly taking care of where they stepped. Kaori's mask was highlighted in his view, showing an increased heart rate. Rocks slid down the wall, five kunai sparked against where it had fallen.

 _:stick tight we-:_

The door was massive, shining, and popped out of nowhere, behind it writhed a mass of the same black gunk that was the blight, voices whispered to them from where they stood. Asking for help, for forgiveness, for death.

"what is this?"

"it's salvation!"

Kabuto walked out of the liquid blackness, familiar black lines writhed around his body, bulging out in some places before receding.

"you will be some of the first to witness it!" he rushed faster than they could see punching Kaori's block sending her flying into the cave wall. Morio and Shoto were next, collapsing on the ground from punches to the gut. Chimon caught him in a shadow, then Kabuto took a step.

"what!" he kicked chimon away from the door making him lay next to Kaori.

"Well hello, Naruto its been a while."

Naruto's hand signs were interrupted by kabuto smashing him across the face sending him into the door, Naruto slumped to the ground. kabuto was in front of him grasping his hair.

"We have so much to catch up on."

Naruto released his half-formed jutsu, white flames spewed from his mouth splitting his lips and burning his throat. Kabuto screamed swatting at the flames as best he could before he gave up and rushed into the black mass. The light of the flames was consumed by the darkness. Naruto grunted as he stood, still listening to kabuto's screams.

"we need to go!" he pulled on his chakra again, summing clones. They picked one of his friends up and ran, Naruto held Kaori close. The Taki nin had secured the area, a few civilians were round up in the center.

"who's in charge?" he handed Kaori to one of the Hana. Wincing as he stood, up straight. He ignited his hand "who's in charge" eyes flicked to civilian wearing glasses. There was a roar that echoed out of the cave. He picked up the civilian.

"let's go!"

* * *

thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed the first chapter. again, I apologize for any grammar issues.

leave a review, hate, criticism or like.


	6. Chapter 6

I apologize for grammar errors, Polish is my first language, not English. I speak and type English fluently, but I do sometimes struggle.

 _:radio chatter:_

 _word - word_ = break in radio chatter

I do not own Naruto.

waterfalls of death III

* * *

Naruto had recovered by the time they had stopped running, the pain in his back and neck had disappeared. The rest of his team wasn't that lucky. Morio and Shoto's stomach had been ruptured, the bleeding stopped by the Taki shinobi's medic, chimon was still unconscious, and Kaori was awake but concussed with a broken arm.

The strange group had run for miles without stopping, waves crashing on the northern coast could be heard a short ways away. so could the explosions of war it's distant echoes making the Taki nin look back in horror every time one sounded off.

They collapsed to the ground after stopping. only Naruto and Fan had remained upright, and the older man looked ready to collapse. But he stubbornly refused to go down, barking orders for his team to check up on the ANBU. Naruto dumped the civilian on the ground, the man cried into his gag as Naruto rolled him over with his boot.

"what are we gonna do?" Naruto turned his masked face up to Fan.

"im…im gonna interrogate him, w-we need to find a key to lock the door."

"what?"

"it's complicated, but basically in that cave is what's causing the blight. It's behind a door we close the door and lock it with its key and we'll stop it but."

"we don't know where the key is." Kaori struggled over to them.

"how do you know all this?"

Naruto shared a look with Kaori, "you don't need to know that, but your welcome to join us in…interrogation." Behind his mask, Naruto licked his lips nervously. Fan looked ill.

"I'll pass." Naruto nodded professionally, before sagging and grabbing the crying civilian.

Kaori limped after them, testing her reset arm. The medic healed it to the best of his ability, and Kaori had wrapped it in their own medical chakra bandages. the only sound in the forest was their footsteps and the quiet sobs of their captive. Naruto wouldn't lie and say he wasn't nervous. His hands were shaking, and he sweat as they walked deeper into the woods.

"this seems good enough." Kaori squatted down cracking her neck as she tied the prisoner to a small tree. She took a kunai and cut the gag out of the man's mouth.

"please, I-I-I don't know anything, I-I-I-im just a scientist."

"we wouldn't have taken you if you knew nothing. Now we can do this two ways, you came here with a key to that door in the cave, you can tell us where it is, or we can make you tell us." The man sobbed

"I don't know anything, please!"

"right, let's burn it out of you." She popped up looking at him expectantly, "dog you have the honors"

He didn't move, he should move they needed the info, they needed to save his friends and the country but he couldn't move.

"dog?" he took a step back. "no" she moved forward grabbing him with her good hand lifting him off the ground. "you're not doing this to me, not now. Remember the villagers? You burned them."

"they were monsters! They weren't human and he-"

"he is the enemy! An enemy who was prepared to unleash monstrosities on our country, on your home!"

"but-"

"grow up." She dropped him like a sack of potatoes "this isn't about you, it's about our friends at home." She took out a kunai and stalked towards the man.

"no. p-please, no-" he began to scream as she cut into him.

"where's the key?" the man screamed out.

"I DON'T KNOW!" more screaming.

"what is the blight? I'll start taking fingers!"

"i-i-its a parasite! a-a-a-a creature that survives of a host! Lord kabuto can control it I don't know how b-b-but he can" there was a slicing sound followed by an incoherent scream.

"that's not what I wanna know! what I wanna know is were the key to the door is kept?"

The man sobbed. Kaori turned to Naruto. "if you're just gonna sit on your ass and let your friends at home die, just leave I don't want you here anymore!"

Naruto took a step forward, he swallowed the bile rising in his throat. "f-for home" he said to himself.

Screams echoed in the air.

* * *

They didn't return to the camp with the captive, the Taki nin looked green and there was a pile of vomit near a tree. Kaori was soaked in blood, leaving a trail back to the corpse. Naruto's own armor and clothes were only dirtied by what had already been on them, but his hand was steaming with heat.

"we know where the key Is." His voice was blank and distant " it's in Oto, just east of here about a half days run." A massive explosion went off in the distance. "I….I don't expect you to come with us, but-"

"you're pushing your selves this far for our country, there are ulterior motives but at the end of the day, it's our country that's being hurt. We won't stand around and watch our home get torn apart!" Hana the youngest Taki kunoichi shouted out, nods were passed around.

"we're with you guys." Fan stuck out his hand, naruto's shaking hand grasped it firmly. "when do we leave?"

"lion and bee are out for a while, we can leave them here in a defendable area, the base is supposed to be small and relatively unguarded apparently they sent a majority of their forces here."

"im sensing a but."

"it's filled with blight." Kaori sounded better off then Naruto did "dog will destroy as much as he can but, as soon as his fire is spotted, we're gonna have to book it back to the door." The group nodded.

"if we attack during the day, we have a better chance of not being spotted." Chimon, stretched as he stood up, running a hand covered in medical chakra over his head. "ninja always expect a night attack. Dog's white flames should be harder to spot if we get there at mid-day."

"we leave at first light, start getting as prepared as you can."

Naruto walked off without another word, away from the team. If he listened correctly it was in the direction of the ocean. The beach was gorgeous and for a moment, Naruto thought he wasn't in Taki, that he wasn't in the middle of a war zone, that it was just him staring out at a beautiful view. Then an explosion went off in the distance, shocking him out of his trance.

He fell back ready to let the hard sand catch him. Kaori caught him instead, guiding him down till he was resting between her legs, his back against her chest, her arms wrapped around him.

"im sorry." He didn't say anything, content to let her warmth and wonderful smell wrap around him, they didn't say anything more.

* * *

Oto was much like Taki territory in climate type, despite its terrain being rice patties and fields, it was still muggy and in the middle of its rainy season. Their feet made no splashes as they rushed through the field, the Taki shinobi in the rear copying the ANBU's zigzag movements. They had scouted the base earlier and discovered that the key was being moved, disguised under a supply train, it would head west towards the invasion for an hour, before going south to the main base of Otogakure.

The three Konoha ANBU rushed out of the rice field. Lightning flashed behind them, as they tore through the startled Oto chunin at the front of the line. Chunin barked orders out and the few ninjas in the train launched into battle.

Naruto propelled himself up into the air, flashing through hand signs his chakra burned inside of him. The pressure of the flame that escaped his lips sent him higher in the air and incinerated the front four carts. He landed on the ground, sending mud up into the air, a small group of genin charged him. Their young faces were filled with terror, as he cut down the first one no older than himself. The Taki nin entered the fray at the rear. Setting off explosions and killing a majority of the remaining chunin.

The genin fled, towards the middle of the train, intent on finding someone stronger than themselves to fight them. a NOTE unit landed in front of him, Oto's own version of ANBU. Naruto sent a fireball slightly left of the man, he dodged right into Kaori's fist. The NOTE's body crumpled.

 _:dog NOTE units attempting to escape east:_

Three shinobi carrying something large, leaped out of the chaos, racing deeper into sound country. Then a roar sounded off and a blight covered body jumped out of one of the carts.

 _:lion take Wolverine and the Taki nin after the target – I'll handle the blight:_

 _:understood:_

Kaori lept away from him, darting after the NOTE units. Naruto flashed through the unfamiliar hand signs, sending another massive gout of flame towards the blight. The cart it had come from was vaporized, but it was too late, the genin that had retreated screamed and begged. Then they changed, the black slime tore through their bodies, spraying blood and gore around the battlefield. then they charged at anything nearby, shinobi unused to the blight were torn apart, changing rapidly afterward, in seconds the once chaotic battlefield, was now an organized mess of flailing black bodies.

Naruto ignited his hands and charged, throwing blasts of flame into the charging pile of creatures. He rolled in the mud underneath a lunge, catching the leg of the beast and setting fire to its body. He chucked it into a pile of squirming bodies, they burned and screamed. The remaining monsters circled him the blight, curling over the bodies changing them into horrific shapes. He charged one and they all charged him, he jumped over them spinning in the air and launched a blast of fire into the colliding bodies making them scream into the air.

The only sound was the burning carts and the screams of the dead monsters. His team returned to him pausing at the sight of the burning area, before meeting him in the wreckage. The Taki nin stared at the flames with wide eyes, in the first battle they had only witnessed him fight from a distance and had never seen the destruction up close.

"we've secured the package, but we may have run into an issue." Chimon gestured to the Hana and Haruto who were carrying the key, it looked more like a sword than anything, its massive blade formed an A shape around the handle. The two ninjas dropped the blade, and almost fell with it.

"it drains chakra faster than anything I've seen, and we can't seem to seal it." He interrupted naruto's reply. "you're not carrying it, as it stands, only you can damage Kabuto and the blight. If you're taken out. Everything we've done will have been for nothing."

"w-we don't have to rush we can wait a day! Recover and attack tomorrow or even the next day." Fan said.

"we don't have time." They looked at chimon, "one of their ninjas said it was too late, that they were ready to unleash the blight on Konoha." Naruto's insides froze, visions of the village being ravaged by the dark creatures passed through his mind, The Kyuubi's roar echoed in his ears.

"we need to stop this now!" white-hot rage passed through his veins.

"wait, Dog!" he grabbed the key, and for once in his life, the Kyuubi agreed to help him. The drain hit him hard, dropping him to levels lower than he'd ever been, the Kyuubi's chakra flooded his system.

"lets….go!" he grunted out. Without waiting, he shot off cracking the ground, beneath him sending his group sprawling.

* * *

Naruto had entered takigakure territory in his one-tailed state, he entered his two-tailed state when his team caught up to him when they neared the cave Naruto could feel the darkness's oppressive presence.

" **it's coming"** the Kyuubi whispered into his ear

"Wolverine, spider take the key!"

"why-" it overwhelmed their senses with dread, one of the Taki shinobi dropped to the forest floor unable to handle the pressure. Dark voices whispered in their ear, begging for release, for use, for _death_. Naruto shrugged it off, but Kaori collapsed her emotion sense couldn't handle both the Kyuubi's malicious anger and the oppressive dark, she screamed and collapsed to the ground.

"spider, fan you need to take the key I'll handle Kabuto! Hana get Wolverine and your friend out of here." Then he was on them.

pure darkness collided with raw anger. Kabuto crashed into Naruto shattering his mask and sending him flying away, he smiled at the group of shinobi, revealing dark fanged teeth. Naruto crashed into Kabuto, forcing them into a grappling stalemate.

" **go!"**

They ran off barely performing under the pressure. Kabuto went for a kick Naruto released him, rearing his fist back he punched, it shattered the tree they were on but missed kabuto. The older teen ran off following the key, Naruto crashed into his back, grinding him through dirt and trees. He released a roar that blew the leaves off and echoed throughout the surrounding area.

* * *

Kaori couldn't breathe, it was like the weight of the entire ocean rested on her back, drowning her in darkness and anger, a massive gust of wind and an echoing roar blasted her off her feet knocking the precious air out of her lungs.

"Wolverine, Wolverine!" the Taki nin Hana was standing over her, Hana's mask was torn off, revealing a young kunoichi. "wolverine get up please!" she begged while tugging on Kaori's armor tears leaked out of her eyes. Kaori realized that she could feel the warm tears land on her face.

"please!" she wiped them away, groaning while she stood. A mass of anger flew over her head, being chased by piercing sorrow. She collapsed again, the emotions causing her to hurl. "wolverine we need-" the sorrow returned, gripping Hana's head. The girl screamed, Kabuto forced open her mouth, holding his own over hers, Kaori watched more tears leak out of the young girl as Kabuto forced black slime down her throat.

he let the girl go, before making his way towards her. The anger returned, Naruto crashed down in front of them a red tail whipping through a tree setting it ablaze with white fire. They clashed, the shock waves sending Kaori into the heated dirt. The sorrow and anger moved away their battle altering the landscape. Hana sobbed on the ground.

"Hana!" Kaori crawled on her knees, towards the downed kunoichi. "Hana!"

"get it out! Get it out! Get it out!" she clawed at her stomach. "please, get it –" her face froze black lines squirmed around her body, she gagged before stilling. Tears still leaking out of her eyes. Then she blinked. "no! no! no!" it tore out of her, spraying her blood over Kaori. The black creature stood in her place, its bones cracking in a cacophony of horror. Then its mouth split into a grin.

* * *

They were dragging the key towards the cave, chimon had taken two chakra pills nearing his limit. Fan had taken three. The cave was visible now, only a few feet away from the entrance. Fan collapsed chimon didn't see him moving anymore. The chakra drain doubled, nearly sending him to his knees. He took a shaky step forward, then another and another. He fell releasing the key to the ground. his vision swam with the edges turning dark.

"spider!" that was Shoto's voice! why was Shoto here? The man in question appeared in front of him, "spider, shit he's got no chakra!"

"ge…..key….doo" his vision turned dark.

* * *

Naruto slammed into a tree, toppling it over. His tails flexed ripping it apart, lighting it on fire. They flew through the air, crashing into a wall of darkness kabuto had summoned.

"let it consume you!" kabuto rushed forward, rearing a fist back. Naruto rolled left, using a tail to hold himself in the air, he breathed fire blotting out the daylight with white flames. Darkness pierced the light. A blast of dark power flew out of the flames. Missing Naruto by a hair's width. The Kyuubi roared within him, thrashing in its cage, techniques and memories flew through his mind. He paid them no attention, none of them would work. Although they were working somewhat together, the Kyuubi's chakra was still corruptive, it still hurt. Naruto felt his arm go numb, kabuto laughed.

"you're reaching your limit, even the Kyuubi can't match up to this perfect symbiote"

They were standing in a crater, they had formed. Beyond the roaring of the Kyuubi, Naruto heard the roaring of a dark beast, and his mind worried about which of his friends had turned.

"face it Naruto! You're done, this world is done! We will consume this world, elevating humanity to new heights! Creating the perfect army!"

" **we?** you're not even you anymore!"

"what?" kabuto grunted, his face distorting into pain. "Naruto? What? Enough!" Kabuto or whatever this darkness was launched its self at him. The Kyuubi moved him, spinning around racing towards the door.

It whispered to his mind telling him what to do. Kabuto roared after him losing control of the beast inside of him, it tore out of his body creating new arms, and legs. Leaving the boy a grotesque remnant of himself. Chimon laid outside the cave, in his haste Naruto couldn't see if he was breathing. The dark beast ripped up the ground behind him. Shoto lay against the cave wall blood leaking out the bottom of his mask. Morio wasn't too far way crawling forward with the key.

"Naruto! I can't do it. I-I can't." Naruto charged past them past the door and into the darkness.

* * *

Kaori limped away from the burning body of Hana. She had used a burning stick to smash the girl away, but she was unsuccessful at defending herself. The black slime squirmed around her injuries, biting into her skin.

"wolver-" Haruto bleeding from being knocked around entered her vision. "y-y-your"

"I know!" she huffed out "I fucking know!" she continued to limp towards the cave she tossed him her flaming stick. "use this when I complete my mission!" he shook when he nodded. They continued on, the dark cave was illuminated by flashes of light coming out of the darkness behind the doorway.

"Kaori?" morio laid on his side breathing heavily "Kaori your!"

"shut up, help me close this thing."

"naruto's inside!" she stared into the darkness watching the flashes of light illuminate the cave.

"we have to close it."

"what! We can't just leave him!"

"he's trapped kabuto inside, we seal it now we can end this, Haruto get the door!"

Kaori moved forward grabbing at the door, ignoring Morio's protests. She winced when the inky dark seeped into her injuries, it wiggled around before it tunneled into her body. She screamed but kept pulling on the door. A hand stuck out!

"morio get him!" the redhead crawled forward grabbing Naruto's hand and pulled. Naruto came out, a black liquid shadow monster came out with his leg. Terror filled her heart and she fell to the floor, then the pain set in, something was going to bust.

Morio grabbed naruto's armor, Naruto let go, and Kaori's heart leaped to her throat. He reached out grabbing the monsters face then breathed. The flame was controlled precise and accurate, it spilled into the creatures smiling mouth. it screeched, along with something inside Kaori, it roared and her chest hurt. The beast retreated to the darkness, its screams echoing out into the cave.

"shut the door, shut the door, shut the door." Morio crawled grabbing the door she had let go of, together he and Haruto shut it with an echoing boom. She clawed at her chest.

"get it! Get it out! get it out!" she pictured Hana's screaming face, then her monstrous form, then Kaori died.

* * *

Kaori stopped moving next to him, Naruto didn't know whether to cry or scream, he leaned back pulling the key up with him, and slammed it into the door. Despite being solid stone, the key passed through without resistance. Kaori gasped next to him, her eyes wide with shock she screamed as the black lines bulged around her, he twisted the key. White lines spread out from the entry crawling around the door lighting up the cave, they pulsed with chakra, before fading. Kaori kept screaming, then coughing, finally she puked out grey slime. It weakly wiggled on the cave floor.

The door continued to glow, and silence had descended on the cave. The door had one word on it.

ZETSU.

Naruto limped out of the cave, Kaori's irregular breathing tickling his neck as she leaned heavily on his good arm the key held loosely in his injured arm no longer draining chakra. His pale almost death-like clone struggled to drag morio out of the cave. Their new favorite Taki nin was backpacking Shoto through the cave. When they got out the only other surviving member of the Taki team was attempting to treat chimon, who was propped up against the wall in front of the cave.

They all sat next to him, as Haruto who only had minor wounds and was still relatively good on chakra, began to try and heal them. "did anyone else make it?"

The kunoichi shook her head "Hana got turned, Fan died from chakra use, and Hansuke got hit by a blast of whatever it is that Kabuto man was throwing at you." She reached into his utility pouch pulling out his bandages and tried to wrap them around him.

"no, Kaori first."

"y-you mean wolverine?" he nodded.

"we don't have masks, and well….fuck it" morio chuckled.

"little dog just cares about his girlfriend!" Naruto just rolled his head back, to tired to fight him. Kaori grunted something unintelligible out until the girl stripped her out of her armor and began to apply bandages, then she just hissed.

* * *

thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed the first chapter. again I apologize for any grammar issues.

leave a review, hate, criticism or like.


	7. Chapter 7

I apologize for grammar errors, Polish is my first language, not English. I speak and type English fluently but I do sometimes struggle.

 _:radio chatter:_

 _word - word_ = break in radio chatter

I am sorry if this chapter feels lackluster or weak compared to the previous chapters, it is the end of the waterfalls of death arc and the set up to the new one, so I apologize if you find it boring.

I do not own Naruto.

please enjoy!

waterfalls of death IV(end), the fire burns strong I

* * *

In the week that followed, what the entirety of Takigakure would call the cleanse, Naruto's team had just barely managed to recover. Chimon had woken on the fourth day and wasn't up and walking until the next day. Morio and Shoto's own injuries had been an easy fix once two medical-nin had been able to help them. kaori…..kaori wasn't looking good.

Naruto slapped his hand over Kaori's mouth covering the coughs that escaped her lips, he wrapped his other hand around her body, pulling her close preventing the shakes that came with her coughs from being noticed, a group of twenty Oto nin rested in the clearing in front of them.

For once Naruto was glad it was the middle of Taki territories rain season, the sound of light rain drowned out the noises he couldn't cover up. The Oto shinobi talked about inconsequential things, the rain, how much this place sucked, general soldier talk. It took them ten minutes to get bored of their position before they left. Naruto waited for another twenty until he was sure, they were gone.

His friends appeared out of the shadows. The two taki nin, Haruto and Ayano, had adjusted well. They had ditched their own uniforms and were now wearing Morio and Shoto's spare half mask shirts allowing them to communicate with the ANBU through its built-in radio. Naruto and Kaori wore their own their shirts. Their masks having been shattered in their last fight.

Naruto wiped the blood that had leaked through Kaori's cloth mask on his pants. Before letting her rest in her makeshift bed, a sleeping roll tucked under a thick bush. smoke rose in the sky in the distance, the Otogakure advance had been halted, the lack of mobility and overwhelming firepower coming from both sides had led to large trenches being dug, nearly cutting Taki territory in half.

"she's not gonna last if we stay here." The statement from chimon didn't require a response, Kaori's increasingly worse coughs were enough. "we've got two options. We head for the battlefront and try to cross the no-man's land. Or we can head south towards fire country, crossover then loop back towards a border entry point and get help there, it will be longer but ultimately probably safer."

"I can warn ero-sennin." They looked at Naruto confused. "I can use my summons to get my sensei to meet us at the border!"

"why didn't you do this before?" Morio didn't sound happy. Naruto rubbed the back of his head.

"I uhhhh im not really good at it, and once I do summon any sensor in the country will know we are here."

"I vote to not go through no-mans land." Everyone else, except Kaori, nodded along.

"so we have a plan, pack up get ready to go in five minutes."

They didn't need the five minutes, no one had really set anything up, Kaori's bloody sleeping mat was out away and the key was tied to chimon's back. Naruto tied Kaori on to his back, worry passed through him when he felt her uneven and raspy breathing caressing his neck. He shook it off, they surrounded him waiting for him to summon Gamakichi. Naruto had always sucked a summoning.

The massive could of smoke, blew away reviling them standing on a very pissed off Gamabunta.

"fuck!"

"Naruto, what the hell did I tell you about summoning me!" Naruto didn't have to be a sensor to feel the nearby chakra signatures flare.

"there's no time boss we need to get south!" the giant toad, opened his mouth to reply but was interrupted by a storm of kunai and jutsu. The boss toad took it all like a mountain, not even flinching with the kunai ricochet of his skin.

"fine but just this once!"

Naruto managed to yell out a very meek "hold on!" before the gargantuan being leaped forward. With the wind rushing in his ears, Naruto couldn't hear his teams screams, but he could see the shock across their faces.

The two-day journey was shortened into forty minutes, the entire way Oto shinobi attempted to stop their class-A summon but nothing short of an army would be able to stop the legendary boss toad. They hit the edge of the mountains that created the border between fire country and Taki territory. The massive amphibian hopped an entire mountain in two jumps before crashing down into the forest. The sight and sound of the large toad managed to attract the Konoha's BPB who had been deployed to the border to keep an eye on the war north of them. it took his team a minute to slide down the toad's body, they collapsed on to the forest floor.

"brat!" Gamabunta leaned down "why were you there?"

"we were on a mission." The toad's eyes narrowed.

"we will have words later!" he popped into a huge column of smoke, they were swarmed a second later. The border patrol battalion landed all around them, med nin rushed forward. They didn't need proof of identity, Gamabunta had been enough.

"here!" he slid Kaori off his back "take her first!" her half face mask once black was now a dark red. A med nin ran a green hand over her chest.

"she's got a punctured lung! Broken ribs. We need to get her out of here!" a jonin landed near them shouting out orders.

"get them to the outpost, tell them to radio in that we have five ANBU in need of EVAC. You!" he pointed to a group of chunin "take the prisoners-"

Naruto stood from where he sat, letting go of Kaori's hand. "they're not prisoners! They helped us during our mission, take them to an outpost near here on the other side of the trenches."

The jonin looked ready to refuse until he saw that Morio, Shoto, and Chimon took intimidating steps forward. No one wants to argue with the ANBU, they held an unconditional higher rank than anyone in Konoha's military, unless you were the Hokage, or ordered otherwise.

"Hirotoki, Kaichi, take your teams to escort these Taki nin to Namikaze outpost." Naruto turned to his new friends.

"I'm sorry, we can't part on better terms."

"don't sweat it, you've done a lot for us this past week, get your team taken care off." The two bowed deeply.

"thank you for saving our country!" Naruto took an involuntary step back.

"ahhhhh uhhhh, it's just our-"

"you've saved countless lives! our village will never forget this great gift you have given us!" they rose, Ayano gave him a hug.

"thank you."

"ANBU we need to go get you and your team out of here, a sensor just picked up on foreign chakra signatures." Naruto managed to give them a last good-bye smile before they were separated.

* * *

Konoha was split into half ringed sectors, one through thirty, going out from sector one the Hokage tower and the admin building underneath the Hokage monument to sector thirty right up next to the villages massive walls. There was only one gate that allowed access to the village it had a main road that led straight to the Hokage tower and administrative, it was also incredibly easy to ambush anyone walking down it.

Jackal team entered on the opposite end of the main gate, using an ANBU entry point. Their seals flared when they entered, signaling any nearby team that they needed to be escorted to the hospital. Four heavy combat teams showed up to help.

Konoha's main hospital, which sat in sector-3 near the main road, was always guarded by a small contingent of chunin and jonin. It contained too many injured shinobi and genetic material to just leave alone. The top floor was secured for ANBU, recent targets of assassination, or the Hokage. only doctors and nurses that had been screened by intelligence were allowed to work there.

His team had been met by the few doctors and nurses the worked on the top floor. Kaori had been whisked away for immediate surgery, Morio, and Shoto, and chimon had been taken away to be treated for their own injuries. Naruto who had at this point had practically regenerated everything, felt fine. They had still given him his own room and a fresh set of decent clothes, and he wasn't going to complain when the bed was insanely more comfortable than the muddy bush he had been sleeping under for the past week.

His door slid open, Jiraiya entered a massive smile on his face behind him Tsunade scowled. Normally he was happy to see her, she was the first older women to actually treat him in any sort of motherly fashion, she had cared….but his recent months memories passed through his mind, waking on a mountain, forced to go through horrible training, sitting in the cold swamp, the dark monsters tearing apart the inn keeps daughter, charging into…..he shivered and frowned. She had signed off on him to do it.

"what's wrong kid? You look like something bad happened! You did amazing." Jiraiya put on a show, waving his hands dramatically.

"I…...we almost…we almost didn't make it….some….a lot didn't!" _fan's dead body on the ground, the miserable civilians falling still after being murdered by the beasts._

"your whole team made it back!" _Kaori's dead body collapsing next to him._

"no…..i guess." He slumped forward. "do..do you need the report, my lady." He didn't miss their frowns.

Tsundae hesitated, "no it can wait until you've all recovered, I came to see how you were doing."

"I …im fine. Just tired."

"then we'll let you sleep, you did well naruto." She turned and left, Naruto didn't miss her hesitance. Jiraiya turned to look back at him.

"don't blame her kid. I get where you're coming from but….she's doing her best." Naruto didn't say anything.

That night he woke up in the sewers. The massive bronze bars, that held in the Kyuubi gleamed in the lowlight of his mind. The darkness behind it moved to reveal the nine tails in all its glory.

" **you have done well….you exceeded what I thought you could do"**

"you didn't think I could do it."

" **no, I thought you would die."** Naruto wasn't shocked by the ancient beasts admittance.

"do…..do you know what it was we….saw in the…..the darkness?" the beast's tails stopped moving and for a moment Naruto thought he was looking at a statue.

" **no, what we witnessed in the darkness…troubled me."**

"y-you don't know!" the beast shifted like this was the first time it had ever encountered a situation like this, it probably was.

 **"I have a hypothesis."**

"a what."

" **a theory…no I will not tell you, if it turns out to be right you may find out anyway but it is still too early to truly know."**

Sewers of his mind faded quickly the Kyuubi shouted out to him but he couldn't hear. only the darkness remained, he heard the whispers, its pleas to be released. The beast was in front of him, its crooked white grin sent him to his knees. Then the room was white, he was standing in nothing but pure light for miles on end.

When he woke up, he ran to the sink nearby. The vomit was the inky black slime of the blight.

"shit."

* * *

Naruto spent the rest of the morning writing his report, recounting everything he could about the mission, only leaving out their prior knowledge of the key, his new fire powers and the visions in the dark. Someone knocked on his door.

"it's Nara."

"come in." Chimon entered, he was dressed in a traditional hospital gown, Naruto snorted at the man's very annoyed face.

"You look ridiculous."

"shut up we can all be blessed with your luck!"

"im not blessed, im just friends with the Hokage."

"now you sound ridiculous!"

Naruto smiled.

"let's see the report." His smile went away, he tossed over his writings to the Nara. Who began reading it intently.

"its…..okay we need to all talk to get our story straight but this is a good story so far."

"what's wrong?"

"we need it to be air tight…you do know withholding information on a report, especially the type of information we are is treason, right?" chimon got real quite the more that sentence went on.

"r-right, I uhhhh knew that." Chimon tossed the report onto back onto the bed.

"Shoto and morio should be up later today…..I've got no idea when Kaori will be okay." They both paused. "but I've been thinking."

"hmm"

"if there was one vault….there might be more."

" **you would be correct."**

the deep voice of the Kyuubi leaving his lips startled him, he brought his hand to cover his mouth. looking around his room in horror.

"what the fuck was that!" Chimon hissed.

"I-I don't know, this has-"

" **you know what this is, but the shadow is correct there are more vaults."**

"the shadow?"

"remember your theory with the bloodlines? Maybe…"

"this isn't a bloodline it's just a technique."

"are their any more shadow users you have heard of."

" **Enough of this pointless banter, shadow procced with your previous statement."**

Chimon took a visible gulp. "right so...so if there are other vaults, and Orochimaru found one, he might be looking for, or could have found others. Like think the Konoha crush came out of nowhere, and he led it. But why he was gone for such a long time? people honestly thought he was dead."

Naruto could feel the Kyuubi think. "maybe this is where the key was?"

" **no, there Is a vault nearby. Shadow you have a mind with you yes?"**

"a mind?"

" **humans and their stupid names, they are all blond much like all of Hachibi's creations, they may have blue-"**

"Yamanaka?"

" **I assume that is their mongrel name then."**

"we have Kaori."

" **she will not do."**

"but kaori's a yamanaka." Naruto spoke up in her defense.

" **she is a half breed, you will need someone of pure blood."**

"then im no use either, my father is not a Nara."

"now he's annoyed, thanks." Chimon just shrugged

" **find a pureblood shadow and mind….or body, we only need two. then I will explain the rest."** Naruto didn't know how he knew, but he could fell when the Kyuubi had left his senses, a gargantuan weight had lifted off his back.

"I think he's gone."

"t-that was the nine tails!" Naruto saw an opportunity.

"ya, so." He tried to act as nonchalant as he could.

"he…he talked to us…like….."

"it's not really that big a deal."

"fuck you, you were shocked too!"

* * *

The Konoha council was formed, during the middle of the first Hokage's reign, the admittedly naïve man had created it so that, everyone in the village would have some form of say in the ongoings of the village. the second Hokage had nearly abolished the entire thing. Keeping it around to handle small matters that he did not have the time to deal with. The third had been forced to use it to solve issues that continually popped up through the three shinobi world wars he carried the village through. The fourth Hokage had lived much like the first, letting villagers elect representatives to the council, allowing him to hear what they want. Upon his death, the old and tired third Hokage hadn't changed a thing allowing the council to strong-arm their way into major village politics before he left Tsunade with the mess.

she had rearranged the entire room, changing the previous circular table that the Fourth Hokage had, to something more reminiscent of when the third truly ran the village. the tables were organized into an amphitheater, she sat at its head in the center stage, underneath everyone on the council, but impossible to ignore.

She glowered up at the sixty-five various council members organized into their factions and sects. Merchants with merchants, nobles with nobles, shinobi with shinobi. Even then it broke down further to personal loyalties.

"you have been called to discuss operation ICON, the plan to groom naruto Uzumaki into the villages shield and face, to help pull us out of our troubled times."

A fat merchant raised his hand Tsunade made him wait before calling on him. "I wasn't aware that there was an issue with the current plan. Has something happened?"

She stood, pulling up with her a manila folder. "open yours." The unusual tone and setting had most of them nervously scrambling to open it. "this is the recently declassified portion of recon team-12's mission into Takigakure territory, Naruto was on this mission because of your plan." She watched their faces react to what they were reading, the nobles and merchants reacted just as civilians should with horror and fear, the shinobi in the room had stern and steady faces.

"ANBU captain Rat-1 of recon division will give you a short brief on the current status of operation ICON."

The ANBU appeared out of the shadows, holding his own folder, he cleared his throat "Naruto Uzumaki has shown considerable growth in these past few months, current estimates put him ahead of the council's current power level plan, he has grown as a leader and as a person. But we are starting to see issues, patterns that weren't there before. Both physically and psychologically, intelligence generated a summary with the newly acquired data. They estimate burn out by the age of sixteen, a discreet psych evaluation performed during his stay at the hospital, flagged thirty-two different markers similar to Itachi Uchiha's, and fifteen similar to Orochimaru, they range from thoughts of self-harm and homicide to traitorous tendencies. His physical revealed, that while his body is about to enter its peak performance, it's recently undergone drastic changes that no one can explain. Please look to section eight of the brief."

He waited for the noise of rustling paper to go away, "the teammates awake at the time claimed he went into this 'darkness' for just over a minute, Naruto claims to have been in them for hours. Now upon his physical, his body temperature sits at around one hundred and forty-eight degrees."

"what im hearing is we should change targets, make a new icon like lady Tsunade's apprentice."

"no that won't be entirely necessary, the original plan was for him to learn under duress, allowing his natural strength to keep him going, allowing recon to deploy him to places that could be hazardous, allowing him to learn at a slightly slower pace."

"will we be able to afford the time?"

"Taki's already released their own version of the story, telling of how jackal team single-handedly saved their entire country and the world from a threat that was seemingly unstoppable. This should allow us some time to let him recuperate."

"how much time exactly? Wasn't he supposed to leave for operation waterfront?"

"intelligence estimates that we have until his birthday for any type of strike to be carried by our enemies. If we use the first six months of the year to let him and his team recuperate, I believe we can launch waterfront then."

"I support this idea." Tsunade was instantly suspicious, Danzo had not said a word until then, the usually quiet man rarely ever said a word during a council meeting preferring to control what he could from the background. "but I would like to hear more about their mission."

Rat threw a look at her, she nodded.

* * *

"I brought you some food."

"Oh yes, im dying from this hospital garbage!" Kaori sat upright from her bed scooting over to make space for him. "they keep giving me soup and im, not a fan." She opened the container of ramen and frowned.

"uhhhh."

"I would have preferred katsu don but whatever."

"wait if you're only on liquids-" she tore into the bowl, slurping the noodles down happily. "oh well."

They sat in a semi-comfortable silence, enjoying the noodle dish as best they could. Naruto watched her eat enjoying, her simple movements and her smiles, then he remembered her dead body landing on the ground next to him.

"im…..im sorry." She put the food down, not saying anything "im sorry I let you-"

"im alive!" she whispered to herself "im alive, and…and you got me here, alive if anything I should be say sorry to you for making you carry me so far."

The silence they sat in was no longer comfortable.

"Naruto I-"

"Kaori I-"

Naruto blushed when he realized how close they were, strands of her blond unkempt hair tickled his nose, and her face had a cute half smile on it.

"I-I-I"

"im sorry you had to see me die."

"what! how can...its not your fault."

"I know, but I can feel your emotions remember, your sad, terrified when you see me now."

"im sorry." she huffed.

"don't apologize it's me that almost reading your mind."

"you don't actually read minds do you?"

"no, I just get a sense of people's emotions. it was worse as a kid but now I can kinda block it out, but occasionally there are people I can't block." she looked him in the eye.

"Oh, you can't block-" he blushed bright red, she snorted.

"ya, I am glad you feel that way."

* * *

thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed the first chapter. again I apologize for any grammar issues.

I am also sorry if this more plot and exposition chapter wasn't exactly what you were looking for, but I really did have to squeeze it in at some point.

leave a review, hate, criticism or like.


	8. Chapter 8

I apologize for grammar errors, Polish is my first language, not English. I speak and type English fluently but I do sometimes struggle.

 _:radio chatter:_

 _word - word_ = break in radio chatter

I do not own Naruto.

The fire burns strong II

* * *

Thousands of voices filled his head, angry agony filled voices screamed at him from the darkness. Something ghosted past his senses, leaving a cold touch on his arm. He flinched as the icy feeling spread along his body.

" _save me!"_

"save us!"

" **save them!"**

The voices grew louder, more distinct. A cacophony of sorrow and madness.

" _help me!"_

"help us!"

" **help them!"**

The darkness moved, swirling around him in a funnel of cold and death.

" _run!"_

"run!"

" **run!"**

"Naruto!" he woke, soaked in sweat. Shivers ran along his body, he needed to puke! He took off towards his bathroom, ignoring Kaori's questions before he vomited into the toilet. Specs of blight floated amongst the brownish liquid.

"Naruto?- shit!" she knelt down, pulling a towel off its hanger, wiping his mouth, he sobbed. "hey, hey, hey its okay." She threw the cloth in the trash, pulling him close. "it's okay."

* * *

The next morning, waking up was much more pleasant. In the past month, Jackal team had been put on hold for training and special duties. Naruto was rarely alone, chimon visited regularly, coming up with different theories and ideas about bloodlines and various histories that were changed with their new knowledge. Morio and Shoto, helped him on the training ground, giving him pointers and tips for both in combat and life in general, often dragging him out to 'guys night' and it was rare for him to sleep alone anymore with Kaori practically living in his apartment.

He didn't bother moving, his arm was trapped under Kaori's body, as she played the part of the little spoon. His hand free rested on her bare stomach, under her shirt. any further up and he would have a handful of something else. She groaned and rolled over her long hair getting tangled around her face, his free hand now rested on her back, he pulled her tighter and attempted to go back to sleep.

"aren't they just adorable!" naruto's eye opened to glare at morio, "oh look little dog is mad we interrupted." Shoto laughed along with morio, the two almost collapsing from a fit of giggles, chimon sighed and sat down on a chair.

"what are you guys doing here?"

"chimon thinks he's narrowed down the location of the vault if fire."

"vault of fire?"

"Ya! Cool right, I thought about naming the vaults something cool so we could track them better!"

"that's beside the point, I've dug up a lot in these past few days, here." Chimon held out a massive binder. "this is everything I've managed to dig up."

"dude, have you slept….like at all?"

"why are you all in my room!" Kaori had woken up, scrambling to find what little sheets the two of them had. She settled for rolling behind Naruto.

"I mean it's not like we" Morio gestured to himself and Shoto "really care."

she continued to glare at them out of a curtain of messy blond hair. "why are you here! Were not even late to muster."

"we came to go over some information, I found."

"well let us get dressed first!"

...

"so I did some digging." The large binder was smacked down on his kitchen table. "I went through old clan records, history books and a few of older clan leaders' journals." He fished out a very marked up transparent map. "this is a timeline of the Nara clan from when it was first founded to now." He pulled out two more maps. "I snuck into the Yamanaka and Akimichi clan records and found out the same stuff." The three maps formed a mess of lines and paths none of them could make out.

"you broke into my home?"

"only to steal records which I brought back."

"you couldn't have just asked me?"

"you were busy." He pulled out a marker. "look at these three points, these are the first time our clans ever interacted, this fourth point here is when the three clans met together for the first time ever, two years later everyone developed their techniques, and no record ever explains how." He circled a large area. "after that three clans, who had been warring nomads for centuries decided to settle down here."

"that's near the jofuku forest."

"you've been?" Shoto nodded, but he didn't look happy.

"yeah…that's where Takahiro died." Naruto winced, the inuzuka bond between their animal and themselves went both ways, man and beast shared senses and instincts when the bond is severed it wasn't uncommon for either one of them to lose their minds.

"if you don't want-"

"no…..it was rough but I'm….over it." They could all tell that wasn't the exact truth, and Kaori's frown was enough proof.

"so we know for sure this is where the vault is?"

"we'll only know if the Kyuubi tells us." Naruto shook his head.

"he's been quiet all month, even when I go into the seal." Chimon nodded before pulling more maps an papers out of the binder.

"there's more. I began to look into little things and major things that happen in our history. To see if there might be any connections that we might find now that we kinda know something else is going on." A large map of the elemental countries was laid out. "this is every place I guess a vault might be." There were dots spread around the map everywhere, with post its and notes all along the sides.

"dude you need a hobby."

"this is my hobby, I like history and learning our history might be a conspiracy might be one of the best things to happen to me."

"are you sure we should do this?" they all looked to Naruto. "I mean….the last vault was…."

"we at least need to check on them. if my theories are right, some may have been opened or are close to being opened." He pointed to a series of islands of the coast of fire country. "Naruto this is Uzushiogakure." He nodded.

"I remember it was the only class I paid attention to, but they were destroyed sometime during the second war right."

"yes, by three countries that at the time were at war with each other. Why would they do that?"

"because they hat….they would hate each other just as much, they wouldn't work together unless-"

"unless there was something mutually beneficial, which destroying the largest supplier of seals doesn't seem beneficial."

"I'm confused, are you suggesting that something…someone forced or convinced three hidden villages to attack a small, no offense Naruto, but a small practically powerless clan?"

"Hey, we killed a lot of people when they attacked."

"that's the point right there! The Uzumaki killed enough people that the other villages had to withdraw from the war shortly after. But the villages gained nothing from it."

"what does this have to do with the vaults?"

"I think whoever it is that got them to take the village, also opened the vault."

" **that is unacceptable."** They didn't even react this time to the Kyuubi taking over naruto's voice.

"why? What's in the vault?"

" **the body of the sage of the six paths!"** Naruto's eyes flashed red, a gaze not his own ran over his friends, it was filled with righteous fury, **"though it is no more than a shriveled husk of a body, it will still be a powerful husk of a body."**

"that's…..not good at all."

" **no…..it not."** the contention cut off. Naruto got an intense feeling of sadness that didn't feel right coming from the Kyuubi.

"so…..we need to go check the vault in Uzu first." Chimon shook his head.

"the one in Uzu will have long since…been r-raided….but there might be something useful in the, what did you call it? the vault of fire."

"ya that was before I learned there were more in fire country."

"we can go look but there is one issue. Kakashi has to come with us."

"why?"

"after the last mission, the hag wants Kakashi with us at all times. We're either going to have to tell him or attempt to keep it a secret."

"he'll go straight to the Hokage."

"not if we can work it outright. If we give him a good enough excuse, we may be able to get him to help us keep it a secret."

"why don't we just tell the Hokage?"

"this." Chimon gestured to the paperwork on the table "is sensitive, the careful bubble of peace that's built in the past few years would be shattered by a conspiracy like this, as powerful and necessary as the Hokage is, she's emotional, she could overreact and kill any chance we have at figuring out what's going on by starting a war."

"that does make sense." They all spun to face Kakashi who sat on naruto's kitchen counter, "yo!" he gave them a lazy wave.

"Kakashi-sensei! We….I…how long-"

"don't worry I heard everything you don't have to fill me in on much…your arguments are pretty good, I'm almost inclined to help you guys keep your secrets."

"why?" chimon sounded suspicious. The jonin shrugged.

"if someone can convince three kage to attack the Uzumaki, what's to say they don't have the ear of our own, we were their allies remember, and I will admit lady Tsunade isn't the calmest of people. Nor has she been around very long." He stood dropping of the countertop, the others all took a step back. "and there are other people in this village, that have the potential to find out and that would be a disaster."

"who specifically?"

"many people on the council, Danzo if you want specifics."

"that still doesn't explain why you, Kakashi Hatake one of the hardest working Konoha nin, would actively keep things from the Hokage." Kakashi slouched, for a moment he looked tired like all his regrets landed on his shoulders.

"I ow it to Naruto, and no I won't explain why. That can be Jiraiya's thing to handle, but just know Naruto, I want to help."

* * *

ANBU were self-run, the elite fighting force, wasn't required to check in with the mission assignment desk or the Hokage after every mission, nor were they required to wait for their superiors to assign a mission. The squad leaders could and often would, take their squads to do whatever it is that needed to get done. An intelligence team might, follow a lead on a spy or follow information back to its source. a heavy combat unit might hunt down a bandit camp or missing ninja that had been spotted somewhere in fire country. And a recon team might go scout out an outpost in another country, or they might go to a forest in the northern reaches of fire country.

Jackal team had gotten approval to run a mission to scout the jofuku forest, near the southeastern border of sound country. The journey there had taken a day and a half, during which time they had caught Kakashi up with what they already knew and their current theories. The man had taken it well, considering he learned that someone or someone's had or possibly manipulated their entire history and culture.

Fortunately for them, jofuku forest was not large, only spanning a quarter of what the forest was that gave the hidden leaf village its name. unfortunately, despite the name good fortune forest, no one, not even the small village somewhere inside had good fortune.

Naruto swatted a bug out of the air, it was large, not insane summons large but more like the oh shit large type of bug. The air in the forest was muggy and humid despite being February, and the knowledge that there might be a vault nearby wasn't helping the team with how dark the actual forest was. He could barely see beyond two trees with how thick the forest canopy was.

They had spread out, far enough that his team was just barely reaching his senses. He couldn't see them but he knew they were there. Progress was slow, the forest's dark and twisting trees had put a hamper on an entire invasion force coming from lightning country, with hundreds of men and women attempting to traverse and map it at the same time, they had failed. For the six ANBU, it was nearly impossible.

Naruto leaped around another gnarly tree and almost ran into chimon, who should have been two people two his right.

"Oh shit!" they both had pulled out knives and assumed a stance. "holy shit, dog. What are you doing?"

"I was walking in a straight line!" Naruto swatted another bug. "we need to regroup. It's probably safest to travel if we can see each other." Chimon nodded.

 _:jackal team this is dog-9 – rally on my position – signal is a chakra flare:_

His comms key'ed on and off as everyone signaled for an okay.

 _:dog-9 this is dog-1 do not signal the chakra flare:_ Kakashi was whispering into his mic _:I've got a chakra signature near me – definitely hostile:_

 _:understood – do you have an identity:_

They waited for a minute, Naruto began to worry. Kaori being a sensor managed to round up at least morio, and Shoto and rally with himself and chimon. They still hadn't heard from Kakashi.

 _:how much you guys trust your combat ability:_ the question came abruptly and very quietly.

They looked around at each other confused, : _we're pretty good – dog-1 is everything okay:_

 _:Rally: on me:_ there was a flare of chakra, Kakashi's almost immediately there was another, _oh shit._

Naruto took off running, his team shouting for him to slow down, but he couldn't, he pulled on his heated chakra channeling it through the old hand signs. It built up in his chest and began to hurt. He crashed out of the darkness of the trees, unleashing a torrent of flame down on the opponent Kakashi had ambushed. the forest lit up with bright white light, the flames Naruto unleashed vaporizing nearby trees.

The fire roared as his confused team, landed nearby. Kakashi signaled for them to surround the fire, he seemed unconvinced that the attack had done anything, Naruto was inclined to believe him.

"very good Naruto. You've improved quite a bit." Itachi Uchiha _walked_ out of the flames, his Sharingan whirling around rapidly, an orange skeleton growing around his body.

"don't look in his eyes! Surround him!" Kakashi rushed forward, cracking the ground around him a Chidori already formed. The strange orange form shrugged off the hit like a pebble smacking into a tree, an arm formed on its side swiping a hand into the flames behind it, before swinging faster than something that large ever should. An earth spire popped out of the ground, catching Kakashi, sending him up into the air, the arm annihilated the rock formation.

Naruto's hand lit up with flame, and he charged. Sending bits of dirt flying into the air, he crashed into the orange skeleton and it shattered! Despite previous warnings, they all noticeItachi's's eyes widen, then Naruto was forced to engage the legend in taijutsu. Despite his new skill in the field of hand to hand, he was no match. Seconds after the first punch Naruto was sliding across the superheated dirt, Kaori already filling his former position. The taijutsu specialist pressing the kin-slayer better than any of them ever would, their dance of Kaori's boxer-like punches, and Itachi's interceptor style was a sight to behold, then he froze.

"now!" the shadow lasted long enough for Kaori to smash Itachi into hundreds of crows. "shit!" a hand appeared on Naruto's shoulder.

"you all are very good." A Chidori punched through Itachi's chest.

"but not good enough." He was on the other side of the newly made clearing, morio exploded revealing himself to be a clone with a class-2 explosive on it. The world rocked from the massive explosion, their masks dimmed the light, protecting their eyes.

"did we get him?"

"of course, you didn't." he sat up in a tree, blood leaked out of his mouth. Naruto wasn't sure if they caused it.

"he's not wearing his cloak."

"thanks for noticing Kakashi." He broke into a coughing fit. Despite the apparent vulnerability nobody moved. "I'm not here on Akatsuki business. But meeting you all here does help out a lot."

"you…..wanted to find us!" the young man nodded, spiting up more blood.

"I wanted to talk about the vault."

"how-"

"I don't have much time so let's get to the point. Before I left, I learned things just as I'm sure you all have learned things." He winced when he pulled out a scroll, "this is what I know." He tossed the scroll to the ground, no one moved to pick it up.

"why?" he coughed again.

"this game you all have learned about, and unfortunately joined…..its dangerous, there are people playing that make the kage look like children, and it doesn't just revolve around humans. The gods are involved as well."

"gods?"

"yes Yamanaka, gods, snap their fingers let there be light gods."

"I still don't get why you're telling us this."

"a leaf carries seeds to plant a new tree."

"what does that even mean?"

"he's still loyal."

Now the younger ANBU were truly frozen, how could this…..this murderer be….loyal?

"no."

"it's an old code, we haven't used it in a while."

"he's former ANBU he could-"

"they're only given to undercover operatives, the only reason I know them was because was a commander, only us and the Hokage know them."

"your really-" only a crow stared at them, before vanishing into the nothing.

"dog?" Kakashi faced the destroyed clearing, the could read nothing from his body language. Naruto looked to Kaori who signaled she couldn't sense anything from him. "Kakashi-sensei?"

"we should go back, file a report we eliminated a NOTE recon team, I'll write the report."

"dog-1 we-"

"bee, leave it."

"we can't just leave without checking the vault, or even checking whatever…this whole situation is."

"You go check the vault then, read the scroll. Im going to check on some people in the village."

"dog-1 you shouldn't-"

"Itachi was my friend, I can't just let-"

"you also can't go back to the village like this. Im going to guess we're all a little shocked by what's going on. We can't just run in halfcocked, firing off jutsu. What are you going to do when you get back to the village? go on a murder spree, you heard Itachi we're going up against gods!"

"as weird as it is to say this dog-sensei, we need to take a step back and think, ya'know."

Kakashi took a deep breath, turning away from the flames. "fine then little dog what would you have me do." Naruto paused, it was usually chimon that spoke reason and intelligence.

"l-lets go to a village nearby, stay in the forest. We read Itachi's scroll….then I guess compare notes?"

"we can go into Jofuku town, I know a guy there who can help."

"Shoto are you sure? that's where-"

"I know, but…this is more important."

* * *

They departed shortly after securing the scroll, moving silently through the dark woods. In the hour run there, Kakashi hadn't said a word, the normally laid-back jonin had been tense and according to Kaori, sad. The same went for Shoto, he got tenser the closer they got to the village. Naruto soon found out why. It was a ghost town when they arrived, buildings had been destroyed by various techniques and no one had been left to clean it up. The mood of the ANBU team soured the further in they traveled to the village. it was poor, thin civilians walked around in unkempt clothing, most attempting to face any way other than the ANBU team. It reminded Naruto of wave country.

Shoto led them past the one open lodge, and straight for one of the damaged larger buildings. He marched up to the door and nocked. the girl that opened the door was marred by a patchwork of burns on her face, she may have once been pretty but not anymore. She looked frightened at the sight of the ANBU before a depression seemed to set over her.

"c-can I h-help you?" Shoto removed his mask, very much against protocol but Naruto didn't really care, the girls face lit up before she hugged him.

"Shoto! It's so good to see you again, I didn't think you would ever come back!" Shoto did his own nervous habit, tapping his left foot while crossing his hands behind his back.

"ah well, life just kinda turns out that way. It's good to see you Momoko." He returned the hug. "is the old man here?" the girl released him, looking down at the ground.

"no…..father passed shortly after you left."

"im sorry for your loss." She nodded sadly.

"why don't you and your…..team come in, im sure that's probably what you're here for."

"if It won't bother you." She bit her lip, looking like she was counting numbers.

"I…..its going to be a tight fit, most of the rooms are still not repaired, and food is kinda scarce right now."

"that's fine, we don't mind sleeping together, and we can go catch food for you guys while we're here. We just need a place to lay low for a bit." She nodded moving out of the doorway to let them in. what wasn't damaged inside the house was nice, the furniture and decorations seemed like it was once a very nice house. But there was nicks and scrapes all around the place, Naruto could tell a fight had taken place inside the home.

Kaori traced her hand along claw marks on the wall, as the ANBU spread out around the living room, there wasn't enough room for them all to sit so she had elected to stand. "what happened here?...wait you don't have to say if its-"

"its fine, we…I'm mostly over it, you don't live with the reminders like this every day without tolerating questions somewhat. The village used to be a pretty big supplier of wood to pretty much the entire world, and you know how business goes. Some people wanted what we had…we started getting threats, bandits mostly so we hired a team, Shoto's team to come help us out. But the bandits hired their own ninja." She gestured around the room and to her face. "you can probably tell what happened after that."

"it was a pyrrhic victory, the town survived and so did some of its people, but-"

"it cost a lot. We do what we can to get by. after the battle, we couldn't produce what we had been before, so we lost a lot of business."

"Momoko, we appreciate you letting us stay here. We'll be sure to help out where we can."

The young girl nodded, "I was about to cook dinner, but I don't think I have enough for all of you."

Naruto nodded. "Shoto, bee go hunt for some food. Dog and spider, if you want you can start looking into the scroll. wolverine and I will go out and get a lay of the land." They all nodded.

...

That night was quiet, Kakashi had lightened up just a bit but reading the scroll had put both him and chimon on a bit of an edge. Shoto was tense, staring at claw marks and scratches with a distant look in his eye, morio did his best to help his boyfriend but it wasn't really working. Naruto and Kaori found themselves playing adult, while they had been the most physically, and probably psychologically hammered during their last mission, they now found themselves being the least emotionally compromised of the team.

"so spider what do we know from the scroll." He shrugged staring off into space, his usual thinking poses.

"im still trying to wrap my head around the super convenient but very confusing knowledge dump, and a lot of it is mismatched information. What I basically got was that the gods created this world as a test a long time ago, then just kinda forgot about it. something or someone came to this world from another it gave us chakra or something like it. People began to gain enough strength to ascended to godhood, throwing off a balance? I don't quite understand that part, but basically, the gods returned and now try to limit the creation of or create new gods. The tailed beasts, play a part somehow, and something called a god tree? He mentions a stone tablet that only he can read in the Naka Shrine in the Uchiha district, but he said it was tampered with by someone."

"I bet my next one hundred paychecks that the someone that tampered with that stone is one of our conspirators."

"it's a stone anyone can mess with it."

"apparently it was created by the sage of the six paths."

"I will not take that bet."

"so what do we do, we kinda know a lot? More than normal people. But what do we do with this?"

"I say we wait." Kakashi spoke up for the first time that night. "we have no idea who's in this game, what's been planned, we're basically newcomers to an entirely new political arena. We don't know who to side with or who try and ally with. Don't give me that look you all heard Itachi, whether we want to or not we're in the game so all we can do is play until we win or die. The best we can do now is sit by and watch what happens while protecting our own."

"the first thing we should do." Chimon pulled out a new notebook. "is establish the rules, the other players and our goals. Right now, we know the gods are players, the sage of the six paths and whatever gave humanity chakra was, the tailed beasts, and whatever this Zetsu thing is."

"don't forget ourselves."

"fine I'll write that too, now for rules, we know that if they all don't like something, they lock it away in vaults. The tailed beasts seem to be the keepers or at least somewhat involved with that."

"chakra allows humanity to ascend."

"and there is a balance of something."

"there is also probably a civil war."

"why?"

"well, the scroll said the gods were creating and preventing new gods from forming it sounds to me like they're fighting."

"and what are our goal?"

"I say just to learn the game at this point."

"we also need to gather are the other human players and what gods are players as well."

"oh and checking on the vaults, they may have some use to us or they may hold something really shitty like the last one."

...

When Naruto woke up Kaori had already left his bed, morio and Shoto were asleep in the bed across from his own, and chimon and Kakashi where nowhere to be found. He found chimon passed out on the couch notebooks and papers strewn across the table in front of him, Kakashi was chewing on something behind his mask while reading his book.

"morning!"

"sensei did you even sleep?"

"no, it's not that time of the week."

"that doesn't even make sense." Although he had his ANBU mask on, Naruto could tell Kakashi was giving him a smile behind his mask. "have you seen Wolverine?"

"your girlfriend went out to the town to look for information about the vault."

"she's not my girlfriend."

"do you live together, sleep together, by groceries and go out to see movies or to the bar, hang out with the same people-"

"Alright, I get it. We're something, I guess."

"who's got something?" Kaori entered the house.

"little dog here agreed that you two are dating."

"I thought I said we're waiting a year." Naruto released a noise from his mouth that he didn't know he could make.

"waiting a year to have sex, or begin dating? because you live together, sleep together, by grocer-"

"well, then I guess we're waiting a year for sex." Naruto squeaked again.

"Congratulations on your first girlfriend little dog."

"do we need to have this conversation now!"

"have what conversation?" morio stomped sleepily down the stairs.

"little dog and Wolverine have gone official." Morio practically squealed.

"Shoto they finally did it!"

"you don't have to yell it out, ya'know, shit!"

They all laughed, at Naruto.

* * *

thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed the first chapter. again I apologize for any grammar issues.

leave a review, hate, criticism or like.

I do need a beta, and I have no idea where to even begin looking for one if anyone wants to help with that.


	9. Chapter 9

I apologize for grammar errors, Polish is my first language, not English. I speak and type English fluently but I do sometimes struggle.

 _:radio chatter:_

 _word - word_ = break in radio chatter

I do not own Naruto.

The fire burns strong III

* * *

It was the sixth day of their mission, aside from their run-in with the missing ninja Itachi, jackal team had found nothing, no sign of a vault. They knew through naruto's incessant nagging of the Kyuubi, that they were in the right spot, but not even the tailed beast new the exact location.

The wild untamed forests were a maze of twisting and winding trees, the unnatural darkness of the forest made navigating during the day almost impossible. At night it was hell, on the second day Naruto found out why the inhabitants of the village which was away from the main road aways, locked their doors and made the village look abandoned. Predators larger than anything he'd ever seen came out at night. they prowled the forest floor and the main road that led through the forest into the land of land of hot water.

Screams from lost or unlucky travelers trying to reach their destination made everything about the nights even worse. Through his masks limited night vision, Naruto watched the massive bear stalk through the tangled underbrush of the forest floor, its footsteps sent slight tremors through the tree he was perched in. there was a scream in the distance, the furry beast reared its head, looking in the direction before turning away to walk towards where ever it was going.

 _:dog this is other dog – me, bee and lion haven't found anything of interest in our zone:_ Naruto sighed, they had scoured the forest during the day for a while, before attempting the same thing at night.

 _:understood – head back to the village we'll meet you there:_ his mic clicked once, signaling Kakashi understood. Naruto stood from where he squatted on the branch, circling his hand in the air to signal to his other teammates to rally on him. He leaped off his perch towards the village, Kaori and chimon falling in next to him. Progress was slow when they traveled to the village, large beasts seemed to be pouring out the woodwork, and the very low light didn't help them at all.

Shoto opened the door to Momoko's house, he was wearing his ANBU canvas cloak, which he definitely hadn't been wearing beforehand.

"what-" he flashed them a paper.

 _Act natural put on your cloaks_

"dog-1 looked at the clouds, and said it was gonna rain, if we're heading back out tonight we're gonna need to wear these."

"Okay then, Wolverine could you grab mine, I'm gonna go talk to dog-1." She nodded without saying anything before disappearing up the stairs. Naruto followed Shoto towards the living room, his eyes roamed the scratches around the room before settling on Kakashi. The jonin was relaxed on the couch, his orange book was open in front of his face. Morio sat in the armchair writing notes on a paper.

"Yo! Little dog, you guys find anything out there?"

"no, we didn't find anything, just a massive bear."

"sounds like fun." Kakashi stood, putting his book away, "bee you finished those notes?"

"yep." He tore out a page from his booklet, handing it to Kakashi, who looked the paper over before passing it to Naruto. The paper was random words scrawled rapidly around it. There was only one actual sentence.

 _twenty hostile's dressed in ANBU gear, have eyes on us now, hostile._

"looks like fun, are we going to check it out?" Kakashi nodded. Kaori and chimon returned, Naruto traded the paper in his hands for his cloak, the two ANBU read the information quickly.

"We're thinking in about an hour, it will give us enough time to rest before the run."

"do we wanna plan the formation now?"

"sure, spider and me, then lion and bee, little dog and Wolverine will bring up the rear." Kakashi wrote something on the paper. "we can use this formation."

 _Spider with bee mid, lion and dog-1 in the rear, Wolverine and dog-9 shock and awe at the front._

"ya this works."

"im cool with trying something new."

"sounds like a plan."

...

Naruto spent the hour napping, it wasn't a very good nap but it was still necessary to sleep. Kaori tapped him awake, she helped him up from the floor where he had slept, the others were all gathering standing around doing final gear checks before the went to 'scout' Kaori checked his armor, fastening a few straps on the back that had come lose, he did the same for her.

"just think little dog, in a year you'll be taking it off, and it won't be armor!" naruto barely succeeded at not reacting.

"see Bee! It told you gotta let up. He's too used to it now."

"I know!" morio fake sniffed, "little dogs all grown up! We just need to change targets! Spider, you're getting a girlfriend."

"no."

"but why?"

"my mother is a traditional Nara."

"ohhhhh" they all gave a collective wince, Nara women were notorious for being overbearing.

"big dog! How about you?"

"I'm good with my pet snake."

"you have a snake dog-sensei?"

"yep!" the man sounded so proud.

Their cheery mood was cut by the scream of another traveler, closer to the village than normal. They finished their last checks in silence, the only sound was the minor scrapes and clicks of them securing their weapons. They exited the house, the one civilian inside being none the wiser.

They followed Kakashi for thirty minutes, bobbing and weaving through the twisted trees. Their pace was fast but slow enough for them to conserve energy. When Kakashi dropped to the rear of the formation Naruto readied himself.

He inhaled, the muggy air forcing him to take deeper breaths, Kaori slid up slightly behind him ready to leap forward once he let his fire out. Kakashi and Shoto disappeared behind them to engage their followers. Naruto swirled his chakra around, causing it to heat up. It ignited the air in his lungs his chakra blocked it from escaping. One minor slip and his body set itself on fire, the nine tails had been sure to imprint those memories into his mind.

To anyone else, it would seem as if the battle started without warning, that the ANBU had stumbled across the camp. To the ninja it was obvious when it would, they avoided a well-placed trap and knew they were close. When Naruto crossed the last branch, smashing through the genjutsu that hid the camp, he let the fiery chakra in his lungs escape.

The forest grew too bright for their masks to filter, their vision was blinded temporarily by the flames Naruto created. They could only hear the sound of the roaring flames and the screams of the ninja inside of them. when it was finally dark enough for them to see the fight truly began.

Of the fifteen root ANBU in the camp. ten survived the initial blast. Kaori sent one through a tree, surfing on the ninja as he slid through the dirt. Shock and awe was over, the middle team chimon and morio, began to rain kunai and shuriken anywhere they could, covering Kaori who stood in the center, taunting anything that was around her, and destroying it with equally furious taijutsu.

The dark side of Konoha wasn't known for just their dirty work. The now eight surviving members of Root, reacted swiftly equalizing the storm of metal with one of their own. A massive man crunched the ground near Kaori, engaging the Yamanaka in a bout of savage hand to hand combat. Naruto didn't get time to worry about his, girlfriend? Before two agents landed in front of him, one was a thin kunoichi her stance with her sword signified she was a fencer. Behind her, her ninjutsu support, a tall brown-haired man, began running through hand signs. Naruto set his hands and feet on fire and stepped forward.

The girl stepped back, leaning heavily on her left foot, maneuvering her sword to angle across her body. Naruto dodged under her swing, mindful of the reverse that was about to come back his way, he put himself in the air. She hissed in victory, then he used his flames to jettison himself higher, up over her body to the ninjutsu specialist just finishing his signs. The earth jutsu the man unleashed had been aimed and prepared for a small target on the branch of the tree, ten feet away. The man didn't get a chance to block before naruto's hand landed on his head, setting the man's hair on fire.

Naruto used the momentum to send the man back towards the sword-wielding kunoichi, she skewered him. The man didn't make a noise as she shoved him off her sword towards the ground. he fell head first of towards the ground, the normally fire-resistant clothing of ANBU did nothing against naruto's scorching flames. The ground underneath them set fire and smoke began to rise.

The kunoichi advanced, using naruto's unstable foothold to engage him with superiority, he ducked an dodged as best he could, only taking minor scrapes and cuts. Finally, he managed to steady himself allowing him to take a swipe to force her back.

"give up." Her voice was smooth, commanding and monotone all at the same time. "you've been poisoned, Konoha wishes for you all to be captured alive for questioning."

Naruto coughed as his mouth went dry, he licked his lips, the Kyuubi though silent as it had been, began to burn away the toxins. His arms and legs felt heavy as he took a step forward.

"that's a load of bullshit!" The Kyuubi finished and he sprung forward much faster than she was expecting, her sword wasn't fast enough to get in between his fist, and her chest. It sent her flipping through the air and lit her armor on fire. She landed perfectly shedding her upper armor with its quick release strap. She didn't attempt to kick it away as it ignited the tree. The fire underneath them created light, he could see her breathing getting more and more labored. Sweat from the heat rising glistened off her skin.

Their tree shook as the large man fighting Kaori slammed into it, he barely rolled out of the way as Kaori shattered the trunk. Their tree tilted Naruto anchored himself with chakra before rushing the kunoichi. She let herself fall, preparing to stab him on her way down. Naruto pivoted on the branch snaking around it, she didn't have the chance to correct her self before she landed on the trunk. He came back around the branch kicking her off towards where chimon and morio had just finished their long ranged fight.

The sounds of battle ended with a final explosion from behind them. moments later Kakashi and Shoto appeared, only minor cuts along their sides where their injuries. Chimon and morio looked near perfect after their long-range bout with the root agents. Kaori was bruised, bleeding, and laughing as she dominated the large ninja, he grunted as she placed her boot on his head forcing it down into the dirt. It looked like she had torn off one of his arms and broken his other limbs.

"don't ever partake in S&M little dog."

"what's that?" he watched the other men on his team shake as they tried to hold in their laughs.

"so dog-1 wanna explain how you knew these guys would be here." Kaori ditched the now dead Root ANBU.

"we should take care of our prisoner, I'll tell you later."

Kaori withdrew a kunai, twirling it in her hand. "I can do it."

"there's no point in torture." They tilted their heads to the left, the ANBU sign for confusion. "she's a root ANBU." Kakashi pulled the girls mask revealing her a simple but pretty face, "they're given a seal on their tongues. It prevents them from leaking information when they are captured like this."

"and you know this how?"

"I was a root ANBU."

"and your speaking..…you're the reason they have the seals." The jonin nodded.

"they also brainwash, and emotional condition. Now we could kill her or turn her over to the Hokage."

"are you sure we should tell the Hokage about this, we did kill Konoha ninja?"

"it's complicated and I'll explain later, but telling her would get Danzo off our backs for a while."

* * *

The two reports made their way to her office at the same time. And by reports she meant, a toad popped into her office, gave a croak before vomiting not only a scroll but an entire body onto her desk. Then her door slammed open and Danzo barged his way into her office. The body coughed, drawing their attention to it, as the kunoichi rolled off the table and landed on the floor with a loud plop. She coughed again before vomiting.

"Sakura go take care of her." The command was absolute, her apprentice who had been reading medical folders in the corner, nodded helping the injured kunoichi stand to escort her out of the room. Tsunade was ready to spring when Danzo cast a disinterested glance down at the slime-covered kunoichi.

"I have a report I would like for you to listen to." He snapped back to his calm self. His lone eye turning up to face her.

"as you can see something else just landed on my desk." He didn't move when she took the drenched scroll in her hand and opened it, she relished in the five minutes she made him wait. The tapping of his cane signifying he was growing impatient. She didn't let anything slip by her when she read that Naruto's team had been attacked by root agents and that they had managed to capture one.

"let's hear it." She turned her eyes away from the scroll, crossing her arms in front of her face.

"you're ANBU attacked a sanctioned Konoha team in the jofuku forest. They need to be contained."

"the same team that just sent me a detailed report of how they came under attack by ninja claiming they were called back to talk to Konoha for questioning."

"yes, the council requested them back for more questions regarding their mission to Taki."

"prove it."

The old man reached into his robes pulling a mission packet out, he didn't hand it to her, he slapped it on her desk. She opened it, the forms were correct as she expected they would be.

"they killed Konoha shinobi. Have them detained."

"I will have them come back. They will report to me, and I will launch my own investigation. We have no idea what actually went down out there, and I have six people telling me they were all attacked by 'ninja dressed like ANBU' I don't remember signing a form to send ANBU out to get them."

"how the chunin wish to dress is not my concern. I have a witness, one of the survivors."

"you mean the one chunin they sent back with the toad. Im going to hold onto her until my investigation team is finished." She enjoyed the way his lip curled slightly in distaste.

"fine."

Tsunade released a sigh after the man left, throwing the report and mission packet into a drawer later for whatever poor soul she sent to investigate. The Toad next to her desk croaked again.

"I guess I should send a message back." It didn't make a noise, she grumbled as she tore a note off writing down to report to her immediately and that their mission was canceled. The toad used its tongue to take the paper to its mouth before disappearing. There was a knock on her door, Sakura entered.

"sensei the girl is in the emergency room you showed me." She stood, brushing past sakura letting the girl pitter patter after her. The room had been flipped on its side by the time they entered, the kunoichi had moved the bed around to form a barricade near in the corner of the room. The air was saturated with chakra, any number of jutsu could have been prepared.

"you're not going to be hurt." A mop of blue hair followed by two grey eyes stared out at her from behind the bed.

"what are you going to do to me?" Tsunade new exactly what she was gonna do.

"you're going to be involved in a punishment."

* * *

It took three days to get back to Konoha after their report was received and they cleaned up the bodies. Jackal team left the jofuku forest, without a hint of finding the vault. They skipped the lines at the main gate to meet an escort to the Hokage's office. Although Naruto hated the rain, he was glad it was raining, Sakura stood at the gate eyes darting around the crowd until they settled on his team. With the hood on his cloak up, she would recognize his hair, or Kakashi's.

"j-jackal team?" Kakashi who stood in front nodded, Sakura straightened up. "lady Tsunade has summoned you." They followed her to the Hokage's office, the trip was quick everyone on the streets giving the ANBU a wide berth. They would have taken the rooftops, but Sakura didn't have access to ANBU traffic routes.

The rain got worse the further into the village they traveled until finally, they reached the Hokage tower. They dripped water all over the floorboards when they walked through the building, the special duties ANBU unit's that made the Hokage tower their headquarters gave them stiff but welcoming greetings.

They entered the room without knocking, Sakura took a position behind the Hokage who stared at them with angered honey brown eyes. They all kneeled.

"You summoned us lady Hokage?"

"you…..you all are turning out to be the greatest pain in my ass I have ever had, and my teammates are Jiraiya and Orochimaru!" she pulled out a mission packet. "you killed Konoha shinobi on a legal mission to retrieve you."

"fuck." It as whispered but no one missed it, and no one had any idea who said it.

"that's right, fuck, you fucked up. Until further notice dog-1 your being reassigned to a command role in special duties, a recent loss and your own skills are too valuable to leave hanging, the rest of you are also being reassigned to special duties for the for seeable future until the investigation of what happened in the jofuku forest is complete." She pulled out a thicker folder. "my apprentice sakura will be checking in with your team once a week." Naruto almost groaned, he didn't wanna deal with that conversation anytime soon. "and you are being given an assignment."

"wait lady Tsunade didn't they-" sakura's protest was cut off by the Hokage.

"enter!"

The door opened, the kunoichi from before entered, her blank face didn't give away any shock at the sight of the ANBU that killed her team, nor did it flinch when they all bristled hands reaching for their weapons.

"lady Hokage she-"

"she has a detailed report in the mission packet, you will read it and you won't complain." She glared at Naruto specifically. "you all stumbled into a political game you weren't ready for and now your gonna play it." This time one of the ANBU did groan, Naruto knew it was chimon, but he wasn't going to say anything. "this is Hinoto, now going under the ANBU code name scorpion-12 she will be joining your team and you will be protecting her for the foreseeable future! Dog-1, dog-9, scorpion-12 stay after you dismiss your team."

Kakashi spun around facing the ANBU, "report here tomorrow regular time, do not be late!" the ANBU popped too attention before vanishing.

"dog-1, dog-9…..no more fuckups! You're on thin ice as it is I can't have the both of you put out of commission. Now I'm sure dog-1 here told you-dog-9, everything about what's going on, sakura I'll tell you later, but for now, Hinoto will be reintegrated into our forces, dog-9 I want you to give Sakura a report on both her ninja skills and integration to our forces and her social interactions."

"but t-lady Tsunade! She-"

"she has been mistreated, and she is a Konoha shinobi! If you didn't like her you should have killed her with the rest of her team." No one missed sakura's sharp intake of breath "now I don't care how you do it but her last living arrangements are off the table, so you'll have to sort it out your selve-"

Kakashi was already gone.

* * *

thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed chapter 9. again I apologize for any grammar issues.

leave a review, hate, criticism or enjoyment.


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